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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 
ALLAN      McLANE      HAMILTON 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF 
AN  ALIENIST 

Personal  and  Professional 


BY 

ALLAN  McLANE  HAMILTON 

M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  (Edin.)  "^ 


With  Original  Illustrations,  Photographs, 
and  Fac-Similes 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


A? 


Copyright,  1916, 
George  H.  Doban  Company 

19\0'1 


PRINTED   IN   THE   TJNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 

BOSTON  COUiGE      ^  ,om 


\  -* 


I   DEDICATE   THIS   VOLUME 
TO 

DOCTOR  JOSEPH  A.  BLAKE 

A    GKEAT    BIOLOGIST    AND     SURGEON, 

AND    A    FAITHFUL    FRIEND,    THROUGH 

WHOSE  CONSUMMATE  SKILL  AND  RARE 

DEVOTION  MY  LIFE  WAS  SAVED 


PREFACE 

In  a  letter  written  by  Benvenuto  Cellini  to  his  friend, 
Benedetto  Varchi,  he  said:  "Your  lordship  tells  me  that 
the  simple  discourse  of  my  life  contents  you  more  in  its 
first  shape  than  were  it  polished  and  attouched  by  others, 
for  then  the  truth  of  what  I  have  written  would  show 
less  clear;  and  I  have  taken  great  care  to  say  nothing 
for  which  I  should  have  to  fumble  in  my  memory."  I 
shall  be  governed,  therefore,  by  the  example  of  this  in- 
teresting man,  and  make  no  further  explanations  except 
to  say  that  the  following  pages  are  intended  to  reflect 
some  of  my  personal  and  professional  experience  during 
an  unusually  busy  life  time.  It  is  always  difficult  to  know 
what  to  include  and  what  to  omit  in  a  book  of  this  kind, 
and  I  regret  that  there  are  many  incidents  that  I  must 
of  necessity  leave  unrecorded  by  reason  of  their  very  per- 
sonal character,  and  others  that  can  interest  no  one,  al- 
though of  exceeding  importance  to  myself. 

New  York,  November,  1916. 


vu 


s 


CON'l'ENTS 

PART  ONE:  PERSONAL 

i 
< 

/ 

'. 

CHAPTKB 

PAGB 

I. 

Origin  and  Family 

•                                      « 

15 

II. 

Early  Memories 

• 

2T 

III. 

The  Civil  War 

• 

38 

IV. 

Through  the  Straits  of  Magellan 

IN  1865 

51 

V. 

Studying  Medicine 

•   ^ 

6^ 

VI. 

The  Old  Far  West 

•  /■      • 

80 

VII. 

Early  Struggles 

•                    • 

96 

VIII. 

Newspaper  Work     . 

112 

IX. 

New  York  Theatricals    . 

.^ 

123 

X. 

Vacations  Abroad    .          .          . 

139 

XT. 

Capri       .          .          . 

\    . 

172 

XII. 

My  Life  in  London 

1     • 

184 

XIII. 

The  Hunt  for  the  Antique     . 

,\ 

213 

XIV. 

Literary  and  Artistic  Doctors 

• 

229 

XV. 

London  in  Wae  Time      .          .      \ 

•         • 

242 

IZ 


f 


J 


/ 

CONTENTS 


'  PART  TWO:  PROFESSIONAL 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

XVI.  Strange  Cases          ....,,  267 

XVII.  Judges,  Experts  and  Juries      .          .,          ,  278 

XVIII.  Will-Making  and  Breaking      .          «          ,  298 

XIX.  A  Visit  to  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddt      ,          ,  310 

XX.  Simulation  and  Imposture        .          ..;          ,  325 

XXI.  Political  Murders             ....  342 

XXII.  The  Dangerous  Insane    .          .          •          ,  369 

XXIII.  Capital  Punishment         .  .  .  ,  380 

XXIV,  Abuses  and  Achievements         ...  390 


Df  O 


X. 


Allan  McLane  Hamilton 


Frontispiece 


My  Father         ...... 

Tom  Moore  at  the  Piano    .... 

My  Brother  and  Myself  in   1851 
Washington  Irving's  Sonnet  to  My  Mother 
Mrs.  Alexander  Hamilton  at  the  Age  of  Ninety 

Four  .  .  .  .  .  •  - 

Barnum's  Museum  in  the  Sixties 
Caricature  at  the  Time  of  the  Mason  and  Slidell 

Episode  ...... 

A   Thumb-Nail   Sketch   of   Abraham   Lincoln   in 
1862 

Dr.  Joseph  A.   Blake  .... 

Dr.  James  W.  McLane 

An  Invitation  to  the  Medical  and  Surgical  So 
CIETY  ....... 

Denver  in  1871  ....... 

The  Orange  Riots  of  1870  .  .,  .  ... 

An  Instrument  op  Torture         .  ;.; 

A  Civil  War  Caricature     .  .  .  > 

Miss  Adeline  Genee  ..... 

Joseph  Hofmann  at  the  Age  of  Ten    . 

"Shillo"  in  His  Ancestor's  Armor 

Native  Welcome  to  the  Author 

Baron  Kentaro  Kaneko 


PAGE 

18 
20 
22 
24 

28 
34 

38 
38 

m 

70 

76 
88 
104 
118 
120 
128 
136 
146 
146 
152 


XI 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Women's  Day  in  an  Algerian  Cemetery       .          .  156 

The  Author  in  Native  Dress     .          ...         >          .  158 

Hamid        ......;...  164) 

Charles  Caryl  Coleman,  Esq.     .          i.,       '  i.          ,.  172 

Old  Beefsteak  Club  .          .          .          .          i.          .  188 

Sir  James  Crichton-Browne,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  .  204) 

Max  Beerbohm  by  Himself             .          >           .           .  222 

The  Apochryphal  Agnews          .          .          .          •  224 

Leslie  Ward,  "Spy" 226 

The  Hands  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner    .           .  234 

Weedon  Grossmith  as  Hamlet     ....  248 

Robin  Confronted  by  His  Old  Parents        .           .  274 

Joseph  Hodges  Choate,  Esq.       ....  284 

Elihu  Root,  Esq.        ......  308 

A  Letter  from  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy       .  .314 

John  Wilkes  Booth  .          .          .          .          .          .  346 

Telegram  prom  District  Attorney  Corkhill       .  350 

Charles  Julius  Guiteau     .....  352 

Leon  F.  Czolgosz  before  and  after  the  Murder  360 

"The  Chair" 380 

An  Automatic  Gallows     i.          .        , .)         .          .  388 


PART  ONE:    PERSONAL 


PART  ONE:  PERSONAL 

CHAPTER   I 

ORIGIN   AND   FAMILY 

I  Come  Into  the  World — My  Grandfather  Alexander  Hamilton — 
The  Beauties  of  Early  Williamsburgh — My  School  Days — My 
Father — His  Presence  at  My  Graduation — The  Yacht  America — 
He  Tried  Gibbs,  the  Pirate — The  "Underground  Railroad"  for 
Fugitive  Slaves — My  Mother's  Father,  Louis  McLane,  Ambas- 
sador to  England — My  Mother's  Life  in  London — ^Washington 
Irving — Tom  Moore  and  Campbell  the  Poet — Gilbert  Stuart  New- 
ton the  Artist,  Lady  Wellesley — My  Mother  Plays  Tom  Moore's 
Accompaniments — Entries  in  Moore's  Diary — Samuel  Rogers — 
Andrew  Jackson  Writes  About  the  Loss  of  the  "Hermitage" — Irv- 
ing Goes  to  the  Opera — He  Writes  a  Poem  to  My  Mother — 
Commodore  Isaac  Hull  and  the  Constitution — My  Mother's  Mar- 
riage— My  Brother  Is  Killed  Under  General  Custer. 

I  WAS  born  in  the  year  1848,  "the  year  of  trouble,"  when 
most  of  Europe  was  in  turmoil,  although  the  condition 
of  general  conflict  was  but  trivial  when  compared  with 
the  awful  upheaval  of  to-day.  This  country  then  of- 
fered a  welcome  asylum  for  many  distinguished  men  who 
fled  from  central  Europe,  especially  Prussia,  in  peril  of 
their  lives — among  them  the  late  Carl  Schurz,  and  Doc- 
tors Ernest  Krackowizer  and  Abraham  Jacobi,  the  for- 
mer of  whom  cared  for  me  in  my  infantile  illnesses,  and 
afterwards  became  a  great  surgeon. 

Upon  the  paternal  side,  I  was  of  the  third  generation 
of  a  family  whose  interest  for  the  public  began  with  the 

15 


RECOLLECTIONS  OE  AN  ALIENIST 

birth  of  my  grandfather,  Alexander  Hamilton,  the  States- 
man, in  1756,  on  the  island  of  Nevis  in  the  West  Indies. 
My  father,  Philip  Hamilton,  his  youngest  son,  was  born 
in  the  City  of  New  York  in  1802,  two  years  before  his 
father  was  shot  by  Aaron  Burr  in  the  famous  duel.  I 
first  opened  my  eyes  in  the  pretty  little  village  of  Wil- 
liamsburgh,  now  a  rather  sordid  portion  of  Brooklyn, 
on  October  6, 1848,  my  father  then  being  forty-six.  There 
were,  therefore,  only  three  generations  in  one  hundred  and 
fifty-nine  years. 

Williamsburgh  was  then  a  country  village;  the  only 
means  of  communication  with  New  York  being  a  ferry 
of  slow  and  clumsy  paddle-boats,  so  that  when  I  went  to 
the  old  Public  School  No.  40,  in  Twentieth  Street,  much 
of  the  day  was  consumed  by  travel.  The  river  front  was 
rather  beautiful,  and  I  remember  the  sandy  beach  at  the 
foot  of  the  street  where  we  lived,  which  was  backed  by 
tall  Normandy  poplars;  here  we  bathed  and  swam,  de- 
spite the  swift  currents  of  the  East  River.  The  region 
is  now  given  up  to  tall  and  ugly  factories  and  ware- 
houses. 

My  father  was  a  delightful  man,  of  pleasing  person- 
ality, a  keen  sense  of  humour,  and  a  harmless  kind  of 
wit,  which  led  him  everlastingly  to  chaff  his  sons,  but 
never  to  hurt  our  feelings.  He  had  many  of  the  hearty, 
bluff  ways  of  the  sea  captains  whom  he  represented  in 
court,  for  his  legal  practice  was  largely  in  Admiralty 
cases.  The  New  York  pilots  were  his  devoted  adherents, 
and  one  of  them — the  late  Captain  John  Maginn,  a  pic- 
turesque character  of  the  Captain  Cuttle  type,  and  for 
many  years  the  dean  of  the  corps — often  came  to  him 
for  advice,  and  smoked  his  very  bad  pipe  in  the  front 
hall  while  waiting  his  turn.  My  father  was  presented 
by  them  with  a  silver  snuff-box,  which  was  brought  by  a 

16 


ORIGIN  AND  FAMILY 

delegation,  and  accompanied  by  a  large  bunch  of  peonies, 
and  this  present  of  coarse  and  showy  flowers  from  that 
source  was  repeated  each  Christmas  and  birthday  for 
many  years. 

Of  commanding  stature,  with  silvery  white  hair  and 
closely-cropped  whiskers,  my  father  made  an  imposing 
appearance  in  the  blue  suit  of  naval  cut  that  he  usually 
wore,  with  a  "Gladstone"  collar  and  black  stock.  He  al- 
ways carried  a  gold-headed  Malacca  stick  and  a  large  red 
silk  handkerchief  with  white  squares,  a  nautical  survival; 
this  he  not  only  used  for  the  ordinaiy  purposes,  but 
to  signal  with  upon  every  needed  occasion,  or  as  an  outlet 
for  the  expression  of  his  elated  emotions — it  was,  in  fact, 
a  part  of  the  man.  I  shall  never  forget  the  occasion  upon 
which  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  take  the  two  first  prizes 
when  I  graduated  from  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  in  1870,  the  Commencement  being  held  at  the 
old  Steinway  Hall  in  Fourteenth  Street.  My  father  had 
a  seat  a  few  feet  from  the  body  of  the  graduating  class 
of  embryonic  saw-bones  in  the  front  of  the  hall,  and  when 
my  name  was  announced  by  the  dignified  President  from 
the  platform,  I  saw  him  at  first  wiping  away  the  tears, 
and  then  waving  the  same  red  badge  of  independent  ap- 
proval wildly  in  the  air.  Later,  in  a  mysterious  way,  after 
expressing  a  sort  of  proprietary  interest  in  the  whole 
class  (which  it  did  not  resent) ,  he  put  a  bank  note  of  large 
denomination  into  my  hand  with  the  injunction  to  "spend 
it  without  getting  into  trouble."  The  hilarious  and  happy 
graduates  scattered  for  a  night  of  celebration,  and  my 
father  proudly  walked  down  the  aisle  as  if  he  had  launched 
something  into  the  world. 

He  was  a  great  lover  of  outdoor  sports,  and  especially 
of  yachting,  and  when  the  racing  schooner  America,  which 
afterwards  went  over  to  England  and  won  the  Queen's 

17 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

cup,  was  built  by  a  syndicate  composed  of  his  nephew, 
George  L.  Schuyler,  and  eleven  others,  he  sailed  the  yacht 
in  many  of  her  trying-out  cruises  in  this  country. 

His  later  life  was  a  quiet  one,  and  his  career  at  the 
bar  quite  without  event,  his  only  celebrated  case  being 
the  trial  and  conviction  of  Gibbs,  the  pirate,  who  was  hung 
at  Bedloe's  Island  in  New  York  Harbour.  Upon  several 
occasions  he  acted  as  Judge- Advocate  before  the  several 
Naval  Retiring  Boards  at  the  end  of  the  Civil  War,  and 
represented  his  many  Navy  friends,  such  as  Commodores 
Stringham  and  Storrow,  and  various  brave  old  salts  who 
had  served  their  time  with  honour  and  distinction. 

Shortly  before  the  Civil  War  the  escape  of  negro  slaves 
from  the  Southern  states  had  assumed  great  proportions, 
and  the  so-called  "underground  railroad,"  an  organisa- 
tion established  to  facilitate  their  safe  transit  to  Canada, 
and  to  supply  them  with  funds  on  their  way,  was  estab- 
lished, with  headquarters  at  Chester,  and  sub-agencies  in 
neighbouring  counties  in  Pennsylvania.  It  is  reported  by 
popular  tradition  that  one  Thomas  Garret,  an  old  Quaker 
who,  according  to  my  friend.  General  James  H.  Wilson, 
was  "a  prudent  and  secretive  man  who  did  his  best  to 
conceal  his  operations  for  helping  runaway  slaves,  which 
was  a  dangerous  business,"  was  the  director  of  a  particu- 
lar centre  at  Wilmington,  Delaware,  through  which  many 
were  cleared.  In  the  North,  the  so-called  Abolitionists 
are  too  well  known  to  need  extended  mention,  but  that  cele- 
brated band  of  free  thinkers  which  was  established  at  Con- 
cord, Massachusetts,  and  known  as  "Brook  Farm,"  con- 
tained several  members  who  encouraged  the  actual  smug- 
gling of  black  men  to  places  of  safety.  Among  these 
was  the  late  Charles  A.  Dana,  the  Editor  of  the  New 
York  Sun.  My  father,  while  a  mild  Abolitionist,  was  a 
sympathiser  to  the  last  degree  when  his  heart  was  touched, 

18 


MY   FATHER 


ORIGIN  AND  FAMILY 

and  at  least  on  one  occasion  helped  a  fugitive  slave  get 
away.  I  recall  this  very  well,  for  my  brother  and  I  saw 
a  very  black  and  ragged  man  in  the  cellar  who  was  being 
fed  by  my  father  himself,  and  kept  until  such  time  as 
he  could  safely  resume  his  journey.  The  mystery  of 
why  he  was  in  our  house,  for  which  no  explanation  was 
given  at  the  time,  impressed  us  then  intensely,  and  our 
imaginings,  it  is  needless  to  say,  ran  riot.  After  Pres- 
ident Lincoln's  great  proclamation  we  were  told  all,  but 
it  was  not  until  after  my  father's  death  in  1884  that  Mr. 
Dana  referred  in  the  Sun  to  the  latter's  many  acts  of 
self-sacrificing  kindness  in  this  direction.  My  father  went 
later  to  Poughkeepsie,  New  York,  where  he  lived  until  his 
death  in  1884. 

A  correspondent  in  the  New  York  Herald  wrote  of 
him  in  the  following  words:  "Judge  Hamilton  lived 
among  the  Knickerbockers  so  many  j^-ears  that  his  fea- 
tures would  seem  to  have  assimilated  to  the  ancient  type. 
Among  his  friends  and  neighbours  the  Judge  is  repre- 
sented as  a  man  of  merry  mood,  brimming  over  with  an- 
ecdotes of  the  olden  days,  when  the  earth  was  to  him  fresh 
and  golden.  The  new  has  no  such  charm  for  him  as 
the  old.  He  loves  old  houses,  old  trees,  old  books,  old 
wine  and  old  friends."  This  is,  indeed,  a  delicate  and 
true  estimate  of  a  universally  loved  man  during  the  sun- 
set of  his  life,  shortly  before  he  died. 

During  the  administration  of  Andrew  Jackson,  my 
mother's  father,  Louis  McLane,  of  Delaware,  was  sent 
to  England  as  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  St.  James 
with  the  proposal  that  if  Great  Britain  would  make  con- 
cessions in  the  carrying  trade  between  the  United  States 
and  the  West  Indies  we  would  repeal  our  own  laws  which 
up  to  that  time  had  acted  to  the  detriment  of  the  former 
power.    He  embarked  in  a  United  States  frigate  in  1829, 

19 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

with  a  portion  of  his  family,  including  his  eldest  daugh- 
ter Rebecca,  a  girl  of  seventeen  who  was  to  become  my 
mother  many  years  later. 

When  the  McLanes  reached  England  they  were  joined 
by  Washington  Irving,  who  was  to  become  my  grand- 
father's Secretary  of  Legation.  In  a  letter  from  Irving 
to  his  friend  Henry  Brevoort,  written  August  10th,  1829,* 
he  says :  'T  stayed  in  Paris  a  little  more  than  a  fortnight. 
When,  hearing  that  the  frigate  had  arrived  at  Ports- 
mouth with  Mr.  McLane,  I  set  off  to  meet  him  at  London. 
I  am  perfectly  delighted  with  him,  and  doubt  not  we  shall 
live  most  happily  together."  Irving's  anticipations  were 
verified,  for  until  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  not  only  a 
friend  of  McLane's,  but  entertained  the  most  affectionate 
relations  with  my  mother  and  the  other  children.  It  was 
owing  to  Irving,  whose  literary  position  had  already  been 
recognised  in  England  as  well  as  at  home,  that  they  speed- 
ily met  the  most  charming  of  the  literary  set,  among  them 
Tom  Moore,  Rogers  and  Campbell,  the  poets;  Robert 
Harry  Inglis,  the  statesman,  who  accepted  the  Chiltern 
Hundreds  to  represent  Oxford  University  against  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  vanquished 
the  latter  by  defeating  his  more  extreme  reform  meas- 
ures; Gilbert  Stuart  Newton,  an  American  artist  bom 
in  Halifax,  but  who  went  to  England  where  he  attained 
great  fame,  was  another  intimate.  He  afterwards  mar- 
ried a  daughter  of  Arthur  Sullivan,  of  Boston,  a  son 
of  General  Sullivan,  of  Revolutionary  fame. 

Besides  these,  my  mother  was  made  much  of  by  many 
other  charming  people,  as  she  sang  and  played  delight- 
fully, and  was  exceedingly  bright.  The  old  Duke  of 
Wellington  and  Lady  Wellesley  saw  a  great  deal  of  her 

*  Letters  of  Washington  Irving  to  Henry  Brevoort,  p.  225,  New 
York,  Putnam,  1915. 

20 


TOM  MOORE  ,AT  THE  PIANO 

A  pencil  sketch  by  Gilbert  Stewart  Newton 


ORIGIN  AND  FAMILY 

and  evidently  took  a  fancy  to  her,  for  the  former  gave  her 
a  locket  surrounded  by  rose  brilliants,  which  I  owned  until 
a  few  years  ago,  when  it  was  stolen  by  a  dishonest  servant. 

Her  other  friends,  among  them  Lady  Caroline  Gren- 
fell,  wrote  long  and  affectionate  letters  to  her  after  her 
return  to  this  country. 

Number  9  Chandos  Street,  where  my  grandfather  lived, 
was  the  scene  of  many  a  merry  gathering.  In  his  diary,* 
Tom  Moore  said,  April  26th,  1830:  "Dined  with  the 
Fieldings,  and  went  in  the  evening  to  a  party  at  Dr. 
Bowrings.  Introduced  to  several  first  rate  literati  whose 
names  I  knew  nothing  about,  also  to  Pickergill  and  Mar- 
tin, the  artists.  To  my  surprise  and  pleasure,  saw  Wash- 
ington Irving  among  the  group,  who  proposed  that  I 
should  accompany  him  back  to  a  party  of  Americans  he 
had  just  left  at  Mr.  McLane's,  which  I  accordingly  did, 
to  his  delectation.  A  young  American  lady  played  the 
harp,  and  I  sang."  At  most  of  these  gatherings  was 
Newton,  and  upon  one  occasion  he  sketched  the  diminutive 
Moore  at  the  piano.  Newton's  pencil  sketches  were  very 
clever  and  more  elaborate  than  most  of  those  preserved; 
I  own  one  of  his  pictures  of  this  kind,  of  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
taken  from  life. 

There  is  an  entry  in  Moore's  diary  t  worth  repeating. 
William  IV.,  whose  reputation  as  a  gay  bird,  and  whose 
brood  of  Fitz-Clarences  as  the  result  of  his  long  existing 
liaison  with  Mrs.  Jordan,  the  actress,  had  been  tolerated 
by  easy-going  England  before  he  mended  his  ways, 
married  the  Princess  Adelaide  of  Saxe-Meiningen,  and 
became  the  King  in  1830.  Moore  said  on  May,  1831: 
"I  forgot  to  tell  Lady  Holland  what  I  had  in  coming  up 
the  avenue  fully  resolved  not  to  forget,  namely,  the  fol- 

*  Memoirs,  Journal  and  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Moore,  Vol. 
VI,  London,  1854.  f  Ibid.,  p.  190. 

21 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

lowing  anecdote:  Among  other  stories  told  to  the  horror 
and  glory  of  the  reforming  monarch,  it  is  generally  stated 
that  McLane,  the  American  Ambassador,  said  to  his  Maj- 
esty, 'I  little  thought,  Sire,  I  should  live  to  see  the  day 
when  I  should  envy  a  Monarch.'  In  paying  a  visit  at 
McLane's  the  other  morning  I  mentioned  the  currency  of 
this  anecdote;  on  which  Mrs.  McLean  (who  is  a  very 
amiable,  natural  person)  said,  'It  is  true  that  Mr.  McLean 
said  he  envied  the  King,  but  it  was  not  on  the  Reform 
question,  but  it  was,  I  am  ashamed  to  say,  on  seeing  the 
King  kiss  Lady  Lilford.'  " 

Samuel  Rogers,  the  "banker  Poet,"  lived  in  St.  James' 
Street,  and  had  a  very  wonderful  house  full  of  works  of 
art.  It  contained  numerous  paintings,  among  them  sev- 
eral by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  which  by  an  ingenious 
mechanical  apparatus  might  be  turned  to  the  light.  There 
were  also  carvings  by  Flaxman,  and  -a  mass  of  other  ob- 
jets  d'art.  He  came  often  to  the  McLanes'  and  wrote 
verses  to  the  young  daughter  of  the  house,  as  was  the 
custom  in  those  days.  T.  Campbell  also  made  his  con- 
tribution to  her  album  in  the  form  of  a  rather  dreary  and 
commonplace  string  of  verses  entitled,  "Some  Thoughts 
Suggested  by  a  View  of  the  Sea  from  St.  Leonard's." 

My  maternal  grandfather's  stay  in  London  was  only 
for  a  year  or  two,  for  he  was  recalled  in  1831  to  become 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  later  Secretary  of  State, 
at  which  time  he  refused  to  be  a  party  to  President  Jack- 
son's arbitrary  measure  of  withdrawing  the  Public  funds 
from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States. 

Upon  the  return  of  my  mother  to  the  United  States, 
she  entered  with  all  the  keenness  of  youth  into  the  so- 
ciety of  Washington,  and  was  a  great  favourite  of  the 
bluff  old  President,  Andrew  Jackson,  who  seized  upon 
this  opportunity  to  take  the  sympathetic  young  girl  into 

22 


MY   BROTHER    AND    MYSELF   IN    1851 

Louis,  seven;    Allan,  three 


ORIGIN  AND  FAMILY 

his  confidence,  showing  a  rare  gentleness  which  was  in 
contrast  with  his  impatience  with  every  one  else.  To  her 
he  wrote  in  1834,  after  thanking  her  and  her  father  and 
mother  for  their  letters  of  condolence  when  the  Jackson 
homestead,  the  Hermitage,  was  destroyed  by  fire:  "It  is 
true  it  was  dear  to  me  because  the  site  and  plan  was  se- 
lected by  my  dear  departed  Mrs.  Jackson — the  little  grove 
of  trees  standing  between  the  house  and  garden  was  the 
product  of  her  industrious  hand.  I  regret  not  the  loss 
of  the  House ;  it  can  be  rebuilt,  but  this  little  grove  I  fear 
is  destroyed  by  the  fire,  or  so  much  injured  that  it  can- 
not be  preserved  except  by  cutting  them  down  to  the  root 
and  preserving  the  sprouts;  if  so,  then  to  me  they  are 
lost,  for  I  cannot  expect  to  live  to  see  them  matured  to 
their  present  grandeur.  I  never  repine  at  the  loss  of 
property — ^my  regrets  are  for  the  little  grove  which  can- 
not be  replaced  by  the  hand  that  reared  it — perhaps  I 
thought  too  much  of  it.  I  have  long  since  brought  my 
feelings  to  be  ready  on  all  occasions  to  say  'the  Lord's 
will  be  done.'  " 

Washington  Irving  spent  much  of  his  time  after  his  re- 
tirement from  politics  at  his  cottage  near  Dobb's  Ferry. 
He  had  reluctantly  given  up  the  idea  of  obtaining  the 
consulship  at  Naples,  which  he  had  coveted  because  of 
the  opportunity  for  further  literary  work,  but  as  soon 
as  he  heard  that  another  man  had  been  thought  of,  he 
abandoned  his  efforts  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  com- 
forts and  pleasures  of  his  native  land.  In  a  letter  writ- 
ten from  Washington,  January  20th,  1834,  to  my  mother, 
he  said: 

"My  dear  Rebecca: 

"How  shamefully  you  have  treated  us  in  turning  back  from 
Philadelphia  when  we  had  provided  so  charming  an  Italian  opera 


KECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

for  your  entertainment.  You  have  no  idea  what  you  have  lost. 
The  opera  is  delightful  and  the  house  heavenly.  All  the  prettiest 
belles  of  the  city  are  to  be  seen  there  in  the  private  boxes  of  the 
second  tier,  sitting  on  downey  and  silken  cushions,  for  all  the 
world  like  the  heathen  goddesses  lounging  on  their  feather-bed 
clouds,  and  looking  down  from  high  Olympus ;  while  in  the  centre 
box  sits  Lynch,  radiant  as  Apollo,  with  ecstasy  beaming  from  his 
spectacles,  and  now  and  then  like  Jupiter  giving  a  word  of  ap- 
preciation that  'seems  to  shake  the  sphere.'  How  goes  on  your 
levee  this  Winter?  still  crowded,  I  suppose,  with  admirers,  the 
'respected'  and  'neglected'  and  the  'dejected'  and  the  rejected 
- — I  am  passing  my  Winter  in  the  bosom  of  my  family,  happy 
as  can  be,  with  a  niece  on  each  arm  whenever  I  can  get  out,  and 
nearly  a  dozen  about  me  when  I  am  at  home.  I  wish  you  could 
see  what  a  pleasant  household  we  are.     Yours  ever, 

"Washington  Irving." 

A  lively  correspondence  of  this  kind  passed  between  them 
until  almost  the  end  of  his  life,  and  once  he  indulged 
in  verse,  the  production  being  addressed  to  my  mother.^ 
This  was  shortly  after  the  return  from  England. 

Commodore  Isaac  Hull,  who  after  his  many  gallant 
encounters  retired  to  private  life  in  the  late  thirties,  was 
one  of  my  mother's  old  friends.  He  never  tired  of  telling 
her  of  the  fight  between  the  Constitution  and  Guerriere. 
The  old  gentleman  gave  my  mother  a  box  made  from 
the  wood  of  Old  Ironsides^  as  the  Constitution  was  after- 
wards known,  with  a  small  piece  of  paper  in  the  cover 
bearing  the  inscription — ^'Ironsides — From  Isaac  to  Re- 
becca/' 

My  mother  was  married  in  1842,  and  with  her  hus- 
band left  the  old  Southern  home  on  the  Bohemia  River 
and  came  to  New  York,  where  my  father  took  up  his  pro- 
fession in  earnest.  I  find  among  my  papers  this  letter 
from  my  grandmother,  the  widow  of  Alexander  Hamilton 

24* 


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WASHINGTON    IRVING'S    SONNET    TO    MY    MOTHER 


ORIGIN  AND  FAMILY 

(then  in  her  eighty-sixth  year),  relative  to  the  event.  It 
was  written  to  my  maternal  grandmother,  and  shows 
astonishing  mental  vigour  from  a  person  of  that  great 
age: 

"It  is  with  great  gratification,  My  Dear  Madame,  that  I  have 
received  your  kind  letter  expressive  of  your  Approbation  of  the 
Union  of  your  Daughter  with  my  Son.  Her  most  intimate  friends 
have  given  her  such  a  high  character  for  Piety  and  Amiability 
that  I  am  assured  my  son  has  made  a  selection  which  will  promote 
his  happiness,  and  may  he  give  your  child  and  yourself  every 
mark  of  his  attention  is  the  prayer  of  his  affectionate  Mother. 
I  regret  the  season  of  the  year  and  my  advanced  age  will  deprive 
me  of  the  pleasure  of  being  present  at  the  Marriage  of  our  chil- 
dren. Remember  me  kindly  to  Mr.  McLane  and  my  Daughter. 
With  great  regard, 

"Elizth.  Hamilton." 

There  were  two  children  by  this  marriage  who  grew 
to  manhood,  my  brother,  who  was  a  few  years  older,  and 
myself.  The  former,  after  going  through  the  Civil  War, 
having  received  his  commission  as  Second  Lieutenant  in 
the  old  Third  Infantry,  became  a  Captain  in  the  famous 
Seventh  U.  S.  Cavalry,  which  was  organised  after  the 
War  of  the  Hebellion.  He  was  killed  in  a  raid  upon 
Red  Kettle's  band  in  the  battle  of  the  Wichita  in  No- 
vember, 1868.  He  had  been  a  dashing  cavalry  officer, 
serving  with  General  Phil.  Sheridan  and  other  famous 
Indian  fighters,  and  in  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  had 
been  an  aid  to  General  Ayres:  he  was  several  times 
brevetted  for  gallantry  on  the  field. 

His  death  was,  of  course,  a  crushing  blow  to  my  father 
and  mother,  for  their  hopes  were,  naturally,  centred  upon 
their  first  born,  who  certainly  in  many  ways  reflected 
by  inheritance  the  great  genius  of  his  grandfather,  Alex- 

25 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ander  Hamilton.  A  long  illness  in  childhood  which  con- 
fined him  to  his  room  gave  time  and  opportunity  to  read 
everything  he  could  find  that  might  later  be  of  use  to  him. 
Plutarch,  Gibbon,  Motley,  Prescott,  and  works  treating 
of  the  great  Alexander  and  Napoleon  and  the  warfare 
of  the  world,  gave  him  a  nice  insight  into  things  not 
as  a  rule  popular  with  the  very  young.  He  was  essen- 
tially one  of  those  "trained  to  be  a  soldier."  With  this 
he  was  never  offensively  precocious,  but  was  modest, 
thoughtful  and  even  brilliant  and  accomplished  in  many 
ways.  When  little  more  than  a  child  he  wrote  timely 
editorials  upon  the  war  which  were  widely  copied,  no  one 
conceiving  that  they  were  the  work  of  a  mere  boy.  It 
has  been  said  that  his  ancestor's  celebrated  pamphlet, 
"The  Farmer  Kefuted,"  which  was  a  reply  to  Bishop 
Seabury  in  1774,  when  he  was  about  my  brother's  age, 
was  from  the  pen  of  some  older  man  and  the  name  of 
Chief  Justice  John  Jay  was  that  wrongly  hit  upon  by 
the  very  wise.  It  is  certainly  interesting  to  speculate 
what  he  would  have  been,  with  his  great  talents,  had  he 
been  spared. 

After  my  brother's  death.  General  George  A.  Custer, 
just  eight  years  before  his  own  cruel  end  at  the  hands 
of  the  Indians  at  the  Battle  of  the  Rosebud,  wrote  these 
sad  and  prophetic  lines  to  my  mother.  After  speaking 
of  her  son's  noble  qualities,  he  said:  "In  fine,  his  whole 
character  and  life  justifies  us  in  the  happy  belief  that 
he  has  gone  where  there  are  neither  wars  nor  rumours  of 
wars,  where  the  soldier  is  at  rest  and  all  is  peace." 


^6 


CHAPTER   II 

EARLY  MEMORIES 

My  First  Cigar — A  Visit  to  Franconi's  Hippodrome — The  Prince  of 
Wales  in  New  York — My  Grandmother  Hamilton — Dolly  Madi- 
son's Letters — Nevis — Early  Hudson  River  Steamboats — George 
William  Curtis  and  His  Brothers — Pierpont  Morgan  as  a  Young 
Man — He  Is  Pursued  by  a  Crank — Early  Aspirations — Bar- 
num's  Museum — My  Friend  the  "Lightning  Calculator" — The 
"Lecture  Room" — The  Family  Parson  and  His  Influence  in  Sug- 
gesting a  Career  for  Me — I  Fall  from  Grace — The  Choice  of  a 
Profession. 

I  HAVE  distinct  memory  of  two  early  events  that  stand 
out  sharply.  Both  occurred  before  I  was  six  years  old, 
and  are  the  antithesis  of  each  other.  One  was  a  dreadful 
illness,  due  to  the  stupid  ignorance  of  a  devoted  but  fool- 
ish nurse  maid,  who,  on  our  way  through  Fulton  Market 
to  the  water  front,  treated  me  to  quantities  of  an  edible 
dried  red  moss  and  locust  honey  beans,  which  were  at  the 
time  delicacies  greatly  in  favour  with  the  newly-landed 
sailors,  and  bought  for  me  an  enormous  black  cigar,  two 
or  three  whiffs  of  which  led  to  my  collapse.  I  have  al- 
ways suspected  that  this  act  was  a  bribe  to  hold  my  tongue 
regarding  her  flirtations  with  a  salty  son  of  the  sea  who 
had  joined  us  on  our  way  home.  I  was  carried  there  in 
a  semi-moribund  condition  by  the  tearful  and  penitent 
woman. 

This,  however,  was  a  preparatory  experience  for  a  sub- 
sequent life-long  indulgence  in  tobacco;  though  I  really 

a7 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

had  not  the  courage  to  smoke  my  enjoyable  "first  cigar" 
until  I  was  eighteen,  so  keen  was  my  distaste.  Since  then 
it  has  been  a  blessing,  and,  in  the  words  of  Charles  Kings- 
ley,  "When  all  things  were  made,  none  was  made  better 
than  this,"  for  despite  the  sour  intolerance  of  King  James, 
it  is  really 

"A  lone  man's  companion, 

A  bachelor's  friend, 

A  hungry  man's  food, 

A  sad  man's  cordial, 

A  wakeful  man's  sleep, 

A  chilly  man's  fire." 

An  equally  keen  reminiscence  of  a  different  character 
was  a  visit  to  Franconi's  Hippodrome,  which  was  built  at 
the  northwest  corner  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Twenty-third 
Street,  and  had  a  brief  existence  of  three  years — and  for 
those  days  was  enormous,  holding  six  thousand  people. 
It  was  finally  replaced  by  the  Mt.  Vernon,  afterwards 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  where  the  brother  of  my  neigh- 
bour in  the  country,  Mr.  Gardner  Witherbee,  now  the 
proprietor  of  several  large  New  York  hotels,  was  chief 
clerk,  and  had  much  to  do  with  providing  amusement  for 
the  Prince  of  Wales  during  his  visit  to  this  country  in 
1860,  for,  being  bored  by  attentions,  he  is  said  to  have 
escaped  and  played  leap  frog  in  the  corridors  of  the 
hotel. 

Previous  to  her  death  in  1856,  my  Grandmother  Hamil- 
ton came  sometimes  to  see  us  in  Williamsburgh,  and  then 
I  was  entertained  by  stories  of  her  early  life,  and  she 
read  me  letters  from  "Dolly"  Madison,  who  wrote  in 
a  queer,  small  hand.  It  was  difficult  to  connect  the  little 
aged  woman,  dressed  in  quiet  bombazine  dress,  wearing 
large  iron-rimmed  spectacles,  and  carrying  the  reticule 

28 


I 


1\ 


At 


MBS.   ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON    AT    THE    AGE    OF 
NINETY-FOUR 


EARLY  MEMORIES 

that  was  universal  in  those  days,  with  the  sprightly,  beau- 
tiful creature  described  eighty  years  before  by  Tench 
Tighlman  and  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. 

After  her  husband's  death,  when  she  exchanged  the 
Grange  for  property  down  in  the  heart  of  the  city  be- 
low Canal  Street,  her  life  was  devoted  to  charity.  She 
it  was  who  with  others  built  the  first  orphan  asylum  in 
New  York,  and  who  literally  impoverished  herself  for 
the  poor.  By  her  father.  General  Philip  Schuyler's  will, 
she  inherited  not  only  large  tracts  of  land  in  Saratoga 
County,  and  at  Oswego,  but  houses  and  lots  in  New  York 
as  well,  and  all  of  this  was  sold  and  given  away  in  alms, 
so  that  had  she  not  ultimately  been  awarded  her  hus- 
band's back  pay  in  the  Army,  which  amounted  to  about 
ten  thousand  dollars,  she  would  have  been  penniless. 

I  will  remember  my  visit  to  the  country  place  of  my 
uncle,  James  A.  Hamilton.  It  was  near  Dobbs  Ferry, 
and  was  named  Nevis,  after  the  West  Indian  birthplace  of 
his  father,  the  island  where  Lord  Nelson  was  married. 
It  is  even  now  an  enormous  place,  extending  from  the 
Hudson  a  mile  or  two,  and  the  large  brown  house  with 
ten  columns  used  to  be  a  landmark  from  the  river. 

In  the  early  days  we  went  there  by  sloop,  or  by  the 
Hudson  River  Railroad,  the  depot  being  at  Chambers 
Street,  from  whence  we  were  dragged  through  the  city 
by  horses,  in  long  cars  with  little  windows,  to  Thirtieth 
Street,  where  we  were  coupled  to  a  wood-burning  loco- 
motive. We  had  choice  of  steamboats,  and  could  take 
the  Traveller  from  the  foot  of  Warren  Street,  the  Isaac 
P,  Smith  or  the  Peter  G.  Coffin,  an  ancient  tub  built 
in  1851,  and  which  was  afterwards  sunk  during  the  Civil 
War,  leaving  its  necrotic  bones  on  the  banks  of  the  James 
River.     The  popular  joke  then  used  to  be  the  question 

29 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  those  who  went  up  the  river,  ''Are  you  going  up  in 
the  Coffin  or  train?" 

At  Nevis  I  used  to  meet  Washington  Irving,  Stagg, 
the  Boston  painter,  and  many  jolly  young  men  (much 
older  than  myself),  among  them  the  youthful  Pierpont 
Morgan,  who  was  a  friend  of  my  cousins,  Philip  Schuy- 
ler and  George  L.  Bowdoin,  the  latter  of  whom  in  after 
years  became  his  partner.  In  those  days,  before  he  be- 
came a  world  power,  Mr.  Morgan  was  simply  a  rather 
trim,  good-looking  young  man.  When  he  became  a  leader 
in  finance,  many  years  afterward,  Mr.  Morgan,  and  later 
his  son,  were  not  to  escape  the  persecutions  of  the  dan- 
gerous maniac,  and  I  was  called  upon  several  years  before 
the  elder  Morgan's  death  to  examine  a  woman  at  Bellevue 
Hospital,  one  Ella  Williams,  who  had  for  a  long  period, 
as  the  result  of  a  paranoia,  entertained  all  manner  of 
delusions  of  persecution  regarding  him.  She  had  pur- 
sued and  bombarded  Mr.  Morgan  for  a  long  time  with 
crazy  letters.  Happily  her  condition  was  so  patent  that 
we  had  no  difficulty  in  committing  her  to  an  asylum.  All 
prosperous  financiers  are  especially  liable  to  the  insane  en- 
mity of  the  unbalanced,  and  Robin,  the  bank-wrecker 
who  was  convicted,  was  very  bitter  in  his  baseless  abuse 
of  Morgan.  Whether  the  German  who  assaulted  the 
present  J.  P.  Morgan  was  really  insane,  as  was  supposed 
at  the  time,  is  a  matter  of  extreme  doubt  in  the  light  of 
recently  discovered  conspiracies:  certainly  the  mere  fact 
that  he  committed  suicide  is  not  conclusive,  as  he  knew 
that  if  his  identity  as  Meunter  was  disclosed  he  would 
be  executed  for  the  murder  of  his  wife  in  Boston  some 
years  before. 

One  of  the  most  delightful  visitors  was  George  William 
Curtis,  the  author  of  Potiphar  Papers,  Trumps,  Lotus 
Eating,  and  other  novels,  and  for  nearly  half  a  century 

30 


EARLY  MEMORIES 

the  occupant  of  Harper's  "Editor's  Easy  Chair."  He  read 
to  us  all  under  the  trees  in  a  charming,  well-modulated 
voice,  and  was  a  most  fascinating  man.  In  later  years 
I  knew  his  brothers,  Drs.  Edward  and  John  G.  Curtis, 
the  former  an  interesting  but  peculiar  man,  who  was  the 
best  histologist  in  the  United  States  of  his  time.  He  was 
a  learned,  reserved  and  solemn  man,  who,  however,  would 
occasionally  find  relaxation  in  writing  a  classical  burlesque 
in  a  literary  manner  worthy  of  a  better  subject  than  that 
usually  chosen,  dressing  up  in  fantastic  costumes,  and 
doing  a  "funny  part,"  in  which  he  was  still  solemn.  The 
other  brother,  John,  and  I  were  fellow  medical  students, 
and  he  afterward  became  Professor  of  Physiology  at  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons. 

I  also  remember  Theodore  Winthrop,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  and  was  one  of  the  first 
officers  killed  in  the  war.  He  it  was  who  wrote  a  delight- 
ful story  called  Cecil  Dreene. 

The  speculations  of  ambitious  boys  as  to  their  future  all 
bear  a  somewhat  close  resemblance,  and  the  influence  of 
early  experience  and  environment  affords  opportunity  for 
the  active  play  of  imagination.  Happily  the  conclusions 
reached  are  usually  evanescent,  and  change  with  personal 
evolution. 

The  rational  work  of  those  who  devote  themselves  to 
that  branch  of  science  known  as  Eugenics,  which  is  in- 
tended to  improve  the  race,  may  ultimately  regulate  the 
choice  of  a  calling  and  favour  the  survival  of  the  fittest; 
but  none  of  these  painstaking  gentlemen  who  dilate  upon 
the  deficient  attributes  of  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  called 
"the  weakling"  can  destroy  the  rosy-coloured  dreams  of 
the  very  young  boy,  or  prevent  him  from  building  castles, 
even  of  the  most  unstable  materials. 

I,  like  others,  had  planned  my  life  at  a  very  early  period, 

31 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  was  not  free  from  romancing.  In  recent  years,  those 
of  us  who  have  devoted  ourselves  to  the  study  of  the  mor- 
bid human  mind  have  called  such  falsification  pseudologia 
fantastica,  which  in  the  adult  is  a  sign  of  derangement, 
but  in  early  childhood  implies  a  perfectly  normal  and 
natural  indulgence  in  lies.  This  led  to  the  construction  of 
wonderful  and  impossible  personal  experiences — such  as 
hand  to  hand  encounters  with  Indians  and  pirates,  and 
in  brave  but  preposterous  deeds  by  land  and  sea.  This 
led,  sometimes,  to  punishment,  varying  from  deprivation 
of  toys  to  the  application  of  the  parental  slipper,  or  a 
small  strap,  which  was  one  of  the  lares  and  penates  of  the 
household. 

The  delicious  comfort  of  building  the  fabric  of  dear 
beautiful  life  from  imaginary  materials  close  at  hand, 
which  are  intimately  connected  with  pleasurable  feeling, 
is  something  that  we  cannot  be  robbed  of  in  our  puppy 
days;  it  is  only  when  our  development  brings  into  play 
the  exercise  of  all  those  more  important  mental  functions 
that  imply  the  exercise  of  reason  and  an  extended  idea 
of  consequences  that  we  awake  to  the  sense  of  caution 
and  the  more  complicated  relations  of  pleasure  and  pain. 

In  adaptation  to  the  cold  ways  of  the  world,  we  curb 
our  imagination  and  think  as  do  our  fellows. 

At  a  tender  age  my  infant  steps  took  me  frequently 
to  a  small  candy  shop  where  heaps  of  multi-coloured  bars, 
delicious  balls  and  sticks  of  concentrated  sweetness  em- 
bodied a  temptation  to  which  I  often  yielded.  My  sub- 
sequent fall  led,  as  the  result  of  disobedience,  not  only 
to  repeated  and  unwelcome  correction,  which  was  hardly 
less  bearable  than  the  ministration  of  the  elderly  family 
physician,  who,  I  think,  at  some  time  must  have  written 
a  prize  thesis  upon  drastic  cathartics.  The  vulgar  little 
old  woman  who  kept  the  shop  was  privy  to  my  demorali- 
se 


EARLY  MEMOKIES 

sation  and  lapse  from  virtue,  and  bade  me  to  "Come 
again,"  which  I  invariably  did  so  long  as  my  pocket 
money  lasted.  To  me  the  prospect  of  owning  such  a 
place,  with  unlimited  peppermints  to  eat  all  day  long,  was 
bliss  too  great  for  words,  and  led  to  frequent  visits  to 
this  cave  of  delight  of  which  I  longed  to  be  the  sole  pro- 
prietor. 

Like  other  little  boys,  I  was  carried  away  by  the  glitter 
and  noise  of  the  circus,  and  my  first  visit  to  the  old  one- 
ringed  Robinson  show  is  vividly  impressed  on  my  mind 
and  easily  recalled  to-day.  I  remember  the  stinking 
smoke  from  the  circle  of  flaring  oil  lamps  about  the  pole, 
the  smell  of  fresh  sawdust  kicked  from  the  ring  into  my 
face  by  the  pudgy,  sedate  and  rosin-backed  horse  who 
dumpily  circled  to  the  music  of  the  blaring  band,  and 
the  hoarse  orders  of  the  ringmaster.  I  witnessed  the  buf- 
foonery of  the  half-drunken  clown,  who  appeared  to  be 
so  closely  in  touch  with  all  of  us.  His  dull  gibes  then 
seemed  as  the  wit  of  Sydney  Smith  or  Charles  Lamb  does 
to-day.  Was  it  a  wonder  that  I  longed  to  espouse  the 
career  of  Grimaldi? 

It  was  my  custom  on  Saturday  to  spend  the  day  at 
Barnum's  Museum,  which  was  at  the  corner  of  Ann  Street 
and  Broadway,  and  which  contained  not  only  a  permanent 
collection  of  worm-eaten  and  very  doubtful  curiosities, 
but  what  are  to-day  called  freaks ;  that  is  to  say,  a  gather- 
ing of  deformed  men  and  women  who  lived  by  their  in- 
firmities; mangy  animals,  a  Belgian  giant,  a  negro  mi- 
crocephalic idiot,  known  as  the  "What  is  it?" — and  a 
"Lightning  Calculator."  Besides  these,  there  was  a  lec- 
ture room,  the  term  theatre  being  discarded  out  of  respect 
for  the  feeling  of  the  truly  moral  clergymen,  or  those 
parents  who  would  not  expose  themselves  to  the  contami- 
nation of  the  usual  playhouse. 

33 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

For  long  hours  I  glued  my  nose  to  the  glass  cases  and 
lost  myself  in  the  inspection  of  bogus  relics  and  other 
horrors,  and,  strange  to  say,  they  had  every  week  the 
same  interest,  and  seemed  to  be  a  part  of  my  life.  I  knew 
intimately  all  the  "living  wonders" — especially  the  Al- 
bino boy,  whose  blinking  pink  eyes  fascinated  me;  but 
Professor  Hutchings,  the  "Lightning  Calculator,"  was 
the  greatest  friend  of  all. 

The  "Professor"  was  a  seedy,  middle-aged  man,  with 
a  huge  black  and  deeply-dyed  moustache,  and  black 
snake-like  locks,  which  he  nervously  twisted  aside  when 
possessed  with  the  mathematical  afflatus.  He  had,  I  be- 
lieve, been  a  Baptist  minister,  but  I  was  told  left  the  pul- 
pit because  he  had  a  wonderful  gift  of  mathematics — 
but  this  was  his  story.  It  was  the  habit  of  this  talented 
man  to  add  with  startling  rapidity  long  columns  of  com- 
plicated figures,  after  Avhich  he  struck  an  attitude.  In  my 
eyes  he  was  the  embodiment  of  wisdom,  and  I  especially 
felt  his  greatness  after  I  had  been  "kept  in"  at  school 
to  labour  over  an  imperfect  lesson  and  was  given  as  a 
punitive  task  a  load  of  sums  to  carry  home.  In  my  eyes 
he  was  the  incorporation  of  Pierce,  Cayley,  and  De  Mor- 
gan. One  day,  after  I  had,  spellbound,  watched  his 
gyrations  and  the  play  of  his  magic  chalk,  and  the  crowd 
had  dispersed,  he  shared  my  paper  bag  of  bolivars,  a 
name  given  to  a  large,  round,  crenated  ginger  cake,  which 
formed  the  staple  luncheon  of  the  sightseer  at  the  mu- 
seum. I  appreciated  the  condescension  and  prized  the 
friendship  of  this  truly  extraordinary  man,  but  the  recol- 
lection of  Friday  afternoon  and  the  rap  upon  the  knuckles 
from  the  ruler  of  "Granny  Greacon,"  my  elderly  and 
bad-tempered  teacher,  whose  plans  for  a  drive  in  the  coun- 
try had  been  thwarted  by  my  stupidity,  made  me  aware 
of  my  limitations. 

34) 


It  m 


^^M 


^5e^^.^ 


barnum's  museum  in  the  sixties 


EARLY  MEMORIES 

The  performance  in  Barnum's  moral  Lecture  Room 
suited  the  most  catholic  of  tastes,  and  the  company  in- 
cluded the  deep-lunged  Mr.  J.  J.  Prior,  the  ranting 
Milnes  Levick,  C.  W.  Clarke,  James  W.  Lingard,  Emily 
Mestayer,  Sally  Partington,  and  Kate  Denin,  who  was  a 
sterling  actress.  From  this  place  graduated  many  good 
actors  and  actresses,  among  the  latter  "Aunt"  Louisa  El- 
dridge,  who  afterward  obtained  a  national  reputation. 
Joseph  and  his  Brethren  was  one  of  the  dramatised  gospel 
plays,  especially  popular  with  parsons  and  Sunday 
schools.  The  episode  of  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife  had 
been  tactfully  arranged  so  that  the  lady's  importunities 
were  of  the  most  harmless  description,  and  Joseph  kept 
aloof. 

I  well  remember  the  Sea  of  Ice,  a  spectacular  melo- 
drama, New  York  Patriots,  or  the  Battle  of  Saratoga, 
A  Mother's  Prayer,  The  Rich  of  New  York,  and  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,  played  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  G.  C.  Howard 
and  Cordelia  Howard.  Occasionally  such  a  gem  as  Val- 
entine and  Orson,  or  The  Wild  Men  of  the  Woods,  or 
Gotham  by  Daylight  and  Gaslight,  conveyed  their  moral 
lessons,  though  at  times  these  were  ambiguous. 

At  twelve  most  boys  and  girls  begin  to  undergo  that 
preparatory  upheaval  in  their  physical  and  mental  make- 
up, and  those  radical  changes  in  development,  which  so 
often  lead  them  to  be  misunderstood  by  their  elders.  I, 
too,  expressed  that  same  introspection,  and  morbidness 
that  finds  vent  in  over-conscientiousness,  depression,  and 
especially  an  all-absorbing  devotion  to  religious  matters. 
This  was  to  some  extent  fostered  by  my  dear  proud 
mother,  and  by  certain  elderly  female  friends,  who  pointed 
out  to  me  the  delights  of  a  new  vocation.  Another  fac- 
tor was  the  example  of  a  popular  and  rather  sanctimoni- 
ous clergyman  who  often  came  to  our  house,  usually  re- 

35 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ceived  the  best  things  on  the  table,  and  seemingly  revelled 
in  the  tid-bits.  Not  only  were  these  material  comforts 
appreciated  to  their  fullest  by  me,  but  the  adulation  which 
was  his  opened  my  eyes  to  the  delights  of  an  ecclesiastical 
career.  At  this  time  my  high  soprano  voice  made  me 
an  acquisition  to  the  choir,  but  I  was  later  disabled  by  a 
familiar  disqualifying  change,  which  created  some  con- 
sternation and  rendered  me  less  desirable  as  an  acolyte. 
•And  possibly  my  devotion  to  certain  amusements  had 
something  to  do  with  a  change  of  heart,  which  led  to  most 
of  Sunday  being  spent  at  Newton  Creek,  or  some  other 
sylvan  retreat,  in  pursuit  of  crabs,  which  in  later  years 
ceased  to  take  an  interest  in  worldly  affairs  when  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  established  their  factories  and  dis- 
charged sludge  into  the  placid  waters  of  Western  Long 
Island. 

My  criticism  of  my  mother's  clerical  friends  is  per- 
haps not  altogether  fair,  for  the  above  is  an  exception. 
Some  dear  good  friends  were  the  Reverend  Geo.  W. 
Bethune  and  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  both  great  and  eloquent 
men  in  their  day. 

Whatever  doubts  I  had  as  to  the  selection  of  a  calling 
vanished  when  my  dear  and  only  brother  went  to  the  Civil 
War  in  1862,  but  I  was  not  permitted  even  to  be  a  drum- 
mer boy,  as  did  another  friend  who  ran  away  from  home 
and  eluded  all  search. 

It  was  not  until  1865  that  influences  made  themselves 
felt  that  had  much  to  do  with  the  choice  of  a  profession. 
I  had  always  delighted  in  applied  science,  and  especially 
chemistry;  and  scars  remain  to-day  which  are  lifelong 
reminders  of  the  occasion  when  I  mixed  explosives  in  a 
retort  that  burst  with  disastrous  result,  so  that  for  days 
I  took  but  little  interest  in  anything  but  the  renewal  of 
ice  water  bandages. 

36 


EAKLY  MEMORIES 

Toward  the  end  of  the  War  an  event  occurred  that  had 
much  to  do  with  my  subsequent  life,  for  I  met  the  great 
scholar  and  naturalist,  Louis  Agassiz,  who  was  to  make  a 
voyage  to  Brazil,  accompanied  by  an  expedition  equipped 
by  Nathaniel  Thayer  of  Boston.  It  included  clever  men 
of  varied  scientific  tastes  and  professions.  We  were  to 
part  with  them  at  Rio  and  continue  to  California  by  way 
of  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  The  contact  of  over  a  month 
with  this  very  great  man  had  its  influence  in  shaping 
my  whole  life;  but  this  must  be  reserved  for  another 
chapter. 


37 


CHAPTER   III 


THE    CIVIL   WAR 


I  Meet  Abraham  Lincoln — His  Peculiarities — Letter  from  John  Hay- 
to  Writer — The  President  Writes  in  My  Brother's  Behalf  to 
Secretary  Stanton — Mr.  Lincoln  Reviews  the  Troops  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac — I  Join  the  Home  Guards — My  Uncle,  General 
"Joe"  Johnston,  and  General  W.  T.  Sherman — A  Divided  Family 
— The  Sanitary  Commission — A  Vermont  Contribution — My 
Brother  Describes  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg — The  Draft 
Riot  in  186s — Bounty  Jumping. 

Early  in  August,  1862,  our  little  family  was  thrown  into 
a  state  of  agitation  by  a  proposed  visit  to  Washington, 
to  be  undertaken  by  my  father,  my  brother,  and  myself 
who  pleaded  earnestly  not  to  be  left  at  home.  We  were 
to  see  President  Lincoln  in  regard  to  Louis'  possible  ap- 
pointment in  the  regular  army.  He  had  had  some  suc- 
cess in  raising  an  independent  company  of  volunteers  at 
Poughkeepsie,  New  York,  but  was  impatient  for  action, 
and  as  his  cousins  were  in  the  regular  service,  and  all  the 
traditions  of  the  family  were  connected  therewith,  he 
sought  an  appointment  which  was  ultimately  granted,  he 
being  assigned  to  the  Third  U.  S.  Infantry. 

Our  reception  by  the  President  was  most  gracious,  and 
I  well  remember  that  even  I  was  not  forgotten,  for  the 
great  man  placed  his  hand  on  my  shoulder,  and  said  a 
few  nice  words,  doubtless  because  I  was  nearly  the  same 
age  as  one  of  his  sons.     While  my  father  and  brother 

38 


OARICATUBK    AT    THE    TIME    OF    THE    MASON 
AND  SLIDELL  EPISODE 


A    THUMB-NAIL    SKETCH    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 
IN     1862 


THE  CIVIL  WAR 

were  talking,  I  watched  the  interesting  face  opposite  me, 
and  was  fascinated  by  the  warty  growth  upon  one  side 
of  his  face,  and  amused  by  his  hearty  laughter,  which  he 
himself  said  to  some  one  on  another  occasion  was  the 
"joyous  universal  Evergreen  of  Life."  At  other  times 
there  was  only  a  whimsical  smile,  his  eyes  indicating  noth- 
ing but  a  kind  of  far-off  dreaminess  and  introspection. 
I  have  since  witnessed  this  disharmony  of  expression  in 
peculiar  or  psychopathic  people,  although  I  do  not  for 
a  moment  make  any  imputation. 

There  was  indeed  at  times  a  deep  look  of  sadness  which 
suggested  a  lurking  sorrow  and  afforded  a  sufficient  ex- 
cuse for  his  moods.  Many  people  have  referred  to  cer- 
tain mental  peculiarities  possessed  by  him,  which  it  is  said 
amounted  to  a  morbid  personality,  if  not  a  mental  dis- 
order, and  that  he  had  hallucinations  and  illusions.  Long 
after  this  visit,  in  1910,  I  wrote  to  his  former  Secretary, 
John  Hay,  for  some  information  to  be  utilised  in  a  book 
I  was  then  writing.  In  reply,  Mr.  Hay  said:  "He  was  a 
man  of  deeply  religious  feeling  rather  than  theological 
belief.  There  was  a  vein  of  mysticism  which  characterised 
him  all  his  life,  but  he  was  not  what  I  would  call  super- 
stitious, and,  so  far  as  I  know,  he  had  no  hallucinations." 

As  the  result  of  our  visit  to  the  White  House  the  Presi- 
dent wrote  the  following  letter: 


Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  August  18,  1862. 

Hon.  Secretary  of  War, 
Sir: 

Louis  McLane  Hamilton,  grandson  of  the  first  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  on  the  father's  side,  and  also  grandson  of  one  who 
at  different  times  was  Sec.  Treas.  and  Sec.  of  State  on  his  moth- 

39 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

er's  side,  has  served  a  three  months'  term  as  a  private,*  and  now 
wishes  at  the  end  of  his  term  near  by  to  have  a  commission  in  the 
regular  Army. 

Let  him  have  a  Lieutenancy  if  there  be  a  vacancy. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 

The  letter  was  all-powerful,  and  the  coveted  commis- 
sion was  sent  to  him  by  the  War  Department.  When  in 
the  field  a  year  later  my  brother  jocosely  described  the 
numerous  reviews  of  the  tired  Union  army  that  seemed 
to  be  the  fashion  at  the  time: 

"We  were  reviewed  first,  or  rather  this  business  began 
in  the  great  review  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  and  Master  Lin- 
coln. The  President  wore  a  long  black  sack  coat  and 
rode  a  fine  bay  horse  (of  which  he  was  greatly  in  dread). 
A  huge  saddle  cloth  covered  all  over  with  gold  lace  lay- 
between  his  august  limbs,  and  the  horse  and  the  whole 
royal  family  looked  very  much  pleased  and  bewildered. 
They  smiled  sweetly  when  we  presented  arms,  and  would 
have  done  exactly  the  same  thing  if  we  had  stood  on  our 
heads.  .  .  .  The  reviewing  mania  has  seized  everybody, 
and  there  have  been  reviews  by  Generals  of  Divisions  and 
Generals  of  Brigades,  and  all  sorts  of  things  with  stars 
on  their  shoulders  and  yellow  sashes  and  great  flashy 
staffs  that  cover  an  acre." 

My  own  military  activities  in  1861-1863  were  confined 
to  repeated  drillings,  and  marchings  in  the  Rochester 
Home  Guards,  a  sort  of  Boy  Scout  organisation.  All  of 
us  at  home  did  our  bit  to  be  of  use,  and  much  of  the  ac- 
tivity of  to-day  found  its  parallel  in  the  dark  days  of  our 
own  Civil  War.  The  well-known  Sanitary  Commission 
enlisted  the  services  of  all  people  too  old  or  too  young 
for  military  duty,  and  most  of  the  women  did  a  great  deal 

*  In  the  22nd  N.  Y.  Militia  at  Harper's  Ferry. 

40 


THE  CIVIL  WAR 

of  work  delegated  to  the  Red  Cross  of  to-day,  and  sent 
boxes  of  food  and  clothing  to  the  front. 

Our  family  was  much  divided  in  its  sympathy,  for  all 
of  my  mother's  kinsmen  were  fighting  with  the  Confede- 
rates, and  one  of  her  brothers-in-law,  John  Garesche,  was 
making  gunpowder  for  the  South,  while  another,  Joseph 
E.  Johnston,  one  of  the  then  great  Generals,  unsuccess- 
fully opposed  General  W.  T.  Sherman,  who  had  been  his 
classmate  at  West  Point,  in  the  celebrated  march  through 
Georgia.  One  first  cousin  by  marriage,  General  W.  H. 
Hallock,  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  United  States 
Army,  and  made  himself  most  unpopular  by  his  arbitrary 
methods.  Another  cousin  wa«  General  Schuyler  Hamil- 
ton, who  had  long  been  in  the  regular  service,  and  there 
were  numerous  younger  cousins  who  like  my  brother  Louis 
fought  for  the  Union  cause.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say 
that  there  was  much  stress  and  bitterness  of  feeling  when 
Lee  surrendered,  but  like  that  of  other  wars,  it  was  hap- 
pily buried  and  we  became  united.  After  the  war  "Joe" 
Johnston  and  Tecumseh  Sherman  fell  into  each  other's 
arms,  and  kept  up  their  tender  friendship  until  death 
parted  them,  often  being  seen  in  Washington  on  the 
streets  together,  walking  arm-in-arm,  or  on  Johnston's 
front  stoop  on  summer  nights,  when  they  probably  fought 
over  their  battles. 

We  saw  but  little  of  Louis  during  the  war,  although 
every  mail  brought  graphic  accounts  of  what  was  going 
on  at  the  front.  He  also  found  time  to  send  illustrations 
to  Vanity  Fair  and  Harper's  Weekly.  So  well  written 
is  his  description  of  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg  that 
I  may  be  pardoned  for  reproducing  his  letter  to  his 
mother,  and  it  has  much  greater  interest  when  we  com- 
pare the  fighting  with  that  of  to-day  on  the  European 
battle  grounds. 

41 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

"Camp  neae  Falmouth,  Dec.  17,  1862. 
"Dear  Mother: 

"As  Artemus  Ward  says,  'There's  been  a  fite,'  and  I  have 
gone  through  the  experience  of  my  first  battle  and  I'm  sorry  to 
say  first  retreat,  so  that  I  am  beginning  to  have  the  proud 
consciousness  of  being  a  'veteran'  who  has  been  'through  the 
mill'  and  escaped  being  ground. 

"Knowing  how  anxious  you  must  have  been  I  wrote  the  first 
opportunity,  but  found  it  impossible  to  mail  the  letter,  owing  to 
the  terribly  unsettled  state  of  the  Army  after  the  severe  fighting 
of  Saturday,  and  preparations  for  the  retreat  which  occurred 
Monday  night. 

"You  have  probably  heard  all  about  it  in  the  papers.  How 
'General  what  you  call'm'  was  supported  by  'General  So-and- 
So'  until  forced  to  retreat,  described  with  the  clearness  and 
precision  of  a  newspaper  reporter.  For  my  part  I  believe  the 
battle  was  only  understood  by  the  Generals  themselves,  and 
the  newspaper  accounts  are  mere  conjectures,  picked  up  here  and 
there,  from  an  aid,  or  a  skulking  soldier,  and  filled  up  from  the 
imagination  of  the  writer  himself. 

"On  Wednesday  night  we  received  orders  to  move  from  the 
camp  occupied  for  several  weeks,  and  there  was  a  general  pre- 
sentiment that  a  terrible  battle  was  to  take  place  in  which 
all  but  Sigel  *  and  ourselves  were  to  be  engaged. 

"But  the  Regular  Reserve  (Sykes'  Division)  was  ordered 
to  move  with  the  rest  so  that  if  the  chance  of  success  became 
critical,  they  could  be  called  into  action  at  a  moment's  notice. 
I  promise  you,  dear  Mother,  that  I  slept  very  little  that 
same  Wednesday  night  and  felt  very  much  as  if  I  were  going 
through  some  queer  dream  as  I  packed  my  haversack  and  loaded 
my  pistol  in  the  early  starlit  morning  and  just  as  I  stepped 
out  of  my  tent  to  join  my  company — Boom — Boom — Boom 
came  sounding  along  the  plain  from  the  River  and  we  knew 
that  the  Ball  was  opened. 

"We  started  at  the  head  of  the  Division,  as  it  moved  right 

*  General  Franz  Sigel. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR 

i/n  front,  and  as  we  came  nearer  the  River,  and  the  mist  cleared 
away  from  the  woods,  the  cannonading  increased  until  it  became 
like  the  prolonged  roll  of  distant  thunder,  and  when  within  a 
few  miles  of  Falmouth  we  halted  in  line  of  battle  along  the  road 
to  allow  the  Volunteers  to  pass — the  Irish  Brigade,  who  fought 
so  like  tigers  the  next  day,  came  first — their  tattered  green 
flag  and  poor  Meagher  at  their  head,  and  then,  score  after 
score  of  other  Brigades,  laughing  and  shouting  as  though  on  the 
road  to  a  first-class  spree,  instead  of  the  bloody  entertainment 
that  awaited  them. 

"Every  now  and  then  the  Battalions  with  bands  marched 
to  music  and  others  with  'Yankee  Doodle'  on  the  drum  and 
fife.  I  did  not  see  a  single  face  that  was  anxious  or  a  step  that 
did  not  spring  with  eagerness  and  hope  as  they  came  marching 
past,  and  I  can  tell  you  that  of  all  the  tunes  that  were  ever 
played  to  bring  a  soldier's  heart  in  the  right  place  and  make 
him  march  gaily  to  certain  destruction,  this  dear  old  air  holds 
its  own  to  the  last,  and  I've  no  doubt  that  Paris  would  have 
fought  like  a  hero  if  the  Trojans  had  only  thought  of  striking 
up  'Yankee  Doodle'  when  he  turned  his  back  on  the  foe. 

"It  would  have  amused  you  to  hear  the  different  salutations 
our  Brigade  received  as  the  troops  marched  by,  and  the  cross- 
fire of  repartee  that  glanced  across  the  road  while  the  shells 
were  glancing  across  the  river.  'How  are  you  Regulars.'"  said  a 
Volunteer  sarcastically.  'Divil  the  better  for  seein'  you,'  was 
the  rejoinder.  'Humph,'  says  a  Volunteer,  'them  are  the  fel- 
lows that  stayed  in  the  rear  at  Antietam.'  'Faith,  yer  right,'  says 
an  old  Regular,  'to  keep  you  fellows  from  runnin'  away,  and 
it  was  more  than  we  could  do,'  and  again  the  old  Volunteers 
would  exchange  good-natured  greetings  with  our  men,  and  be 
encouraged  to  go  in — and  win. 

"After  the  whole  Grand  Division  had  passed  the  order  was 
received  to  detach  our  Division  from  Hooker  and  support  Sum- 
ner, when  he  crossed  the  Bridge.  This  we  did,  bivouacking 
Thursday  and  Friday  nights  on  the  hill  behind  our  Batteries, 
watching  the  shells  bursting  in  the  City,  listening  impatiently 

43 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  the  cheers  of  the  troops,  as  they  crossed  the  pontoons,  and 
reading  the  delightful  package  of  letters  which  I  received,  while 
the  cannonading  went  on  sullenly,  stopping  only  at  nightfall,  and 
we  found  ourselves  still  inactive  on  the  safe  side  of  the  River 
Saturday  morning,  the  only  troops  who  had  not  crossed.  Up 
to  this  time  there  had  been  little  or  no  Infantry  fighting,  with 
the  exception  of  a  brisk  skirmish  at  the  Bridge,  where  a  Missis- 
sippi Regiment  numbering  only  four  hundred  men,  gallantly 
disputed  the  crossing  of  our  whole  Army  under  the  fire  of 
over  a  hundred  heavy  guns  at  short  range  and  only  retreated 
when  the  whole  lower  part  of  the  city  was  battered  about  their 
ears  and  laid  in  the  dust.  This  was  as  gallant  and  heroic  a  feat 
as  that  of  Leonidas. 

"On  Saturday  morning  a  terrible  fire  of  musketry  was  heard 
across  the  river,  accompanied  by  the  opening  of  all  the  Rebel 
batteries,  who  had  hitherto  kept  silent  and  saved  their  ammuni- 
tion, and  then,  one  by  one,  our  batteries  crossed  the  bridge  and 
the  thunder  of  a  general  engagement  rolled  over  the  river — 
grand  and  sublime  beyond  anything  I  have  heard  or  conceived 
within  the  limits  of  the  sublimity  of  War.  At  one  time  we  could 
hear  the  musketry  crackling,  like  numerous  packs  of  firecrackers 
set  off  at  once  in  a  barrel — and  then — the  Artillery  would  join 
in  like  the  deep  baying  of  a  great  hound  and  the  smoke  fiioat 
like  a  fog  over  the  hiUs,  thick  and  stifling  with  the  peculiar  smell 
of  gunpowder. 

"At  eleven  o'clock  a  hurried  aid  came  spurring  across  the 
hill  between  us  and  the  river,  and  we  all  knew  what  was  coming. 
Every  man  took  his  place  in  the  ranks  without  a  word,  or  wait- 
ing for  a  command,  and  then,  slowly  winding  our  way  in  a 
long  line,  the  Division  passed  over  the  plain  and  halted  the  column 
in  front  of  the  Bridge  to  await  further  orders.  In  front  of  us 
the  shattered  town  and  the  smoke  and  the  thunder,  every  now 
and  then  the  loud  explosion  of  a  shell  as  they  burst  near  us  and 
the  rattling  of  the  stones  and  the  dirt  it  threw  over  our  men. 

"I  was  standing  by  the  side  of  my  Company,  watching  a 
Rebel  battery  about  a  mile  off,  the  only  one  that  commanded 

44« 


THE  CIVIL  WAR 

our  position,  when  a  little  white  puff  burst  innocently  out  of  the 
distant  embrasure.  I  turned  my  head  to  point  it  out  to  an 
officer,  who  stood  near  me,  when  whiz-z-z-z-z  went  a  great  scream- 
ing, roaring,  round  shot  like  a  fiend  and  struck  in  the  bank. 
I  turned  my  head  to  look  and  found  that  rapid  as  had  been 
its  progress  that  terrible  whiz  had  been  through  our  ranks, 
and  three  poor  fellows  were  laid  out  on  the  ground  with  the 
Doctor  and  his  assistants  cutting  their  clothes  open  and  spread- 
ing his  instruments  out  on  a  blanket. 

"Double  quick  across  the  Bridge  and  through  the  town 
seemed  like  a  dream,  and  it  was  hard  to  realise  that  I  was 
actually  going  into  action.  Past  shattered  houses,  with  windows 
knocked  into  one,  over  great  holes  in  the  street  torn  by  our 
shells,  red  'flags  on  every  corner  to  mark  the  hospitals,  with 
frightened  groups  of  men  bearing  a  comrade  to  the  Surgeon, 
and  on  the  corners  of  the  streets  laid  out  in  long  rows,  like  the 
ranks  of  a  Regiment,  were  terrible  stiff  looking  blankets,  and 
under  the  blankets — I  was   almost  afraid  to  think. 

"We  halted  on  the  corner  of  the  main  street  and  the  order 
came  to  load.  Then  we  knew  that  our  work  was  before  us  and 
there  was  no  mistake — and  then — and  not  until  then — there  came 
a  queer  physical  sensation,  not  exactly  nervous,  but  very  much 
like  it;  and  the  thought  came  across  my  mind  that  it  would  be 
very  pleasant  to  be  seated  in  a  secure  cellar  in  the  interior  of 
the  Catskill  Mountains,  with  a  big  dog  in  the  background,  and  a 
policeman  in  front  of  the  house.  By  the  right  flank  double 
quick — march!  out  of  the  town,  past  the  last  house,  and  then — 
the  battle  field!  Excited  aids,  tearing  past  on  foaming  horses, 
wounded  men  hobbling  down  the  streets  into  shelter;  Doctors 
with  their  green  sashes,  cool  and  busy — and  I  looked  out  on  the 
terrible  scene  that  lay  before  us.  No  more  imagination,  no 
more  romance — stern,  dark  reality. 

"It  was  evident  to  us  all  that  the  day  was  against  us  when 
we  first  emerged  from  the  shelter,  and  that  the  Regulars  were 
the  only  troops  that  could  turn  the  scale.  In  front — about  a 
hundred  yards  distant — stood  a  mound,  clearly  defined  against 

45 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  sky,  with  the  smoke  rolling  in  wild  clouds  over  our  heads 
and  dimming  the  fierce  red  glare  of  the  setting  sun  that  was  dis- 
appearing grimly  through  the  gunpowder  and  threatening  the 
approach  of  night  to  add  to  the  horror  of  the  Battle. 

"Around  the  base  of  the  mound  we  could  see  Infantry  hud- 
dled in  blue  masses,  supporting  a  Battery  on  its  summit,  with 
the  figures  of  the  wild  looking  Artillery  men  working  the  guns 
like  so  many  demons,  and  cheering  when  a  caisson  was  blown 
up  or  a  shell  exploded  in  the  Rebel  works.  *Thank  God,  we  are 
all  right,'  cried  a  poor  fellow  by  the  road,  'here  comes  the 
Regulars !' 

"Phiz,  Phiz,  Phiz — went  the  Minie  bullets  over  our  heads  as 
we  were  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle — ^with  a  heavy  thud  every  now 
and  then  when  they  struck  a  man,  and  then — when  we  were 
fairly  in  I  began  to  feel  like  a  brick  and  realise  that  I  not  only 
had  myself  to  take  care  of  but  a  whole  company.  So  I  put  on 
what  Allan  calls  the  domineering  smile,  as  if  I  was  not  the  least 
bit  scared  (which  I  was)  and  told  the  men  not  to  be  nervous,  and 
keep  their  heads  up,  and  thus  we  stood,  waiting  for  the  order 
to  charge. 

"Suddenly  a  great  cry  was  raised  and  we  could  see  our 
troops  fall  back  in  groups  of  two  and  three,  running  like 
chickens,  and  then  the  wild  yell  of  the  Rebels  as  they  charged, 
and  thus  drawn  up  we  remained  in  front  of  the  town  until  dark, 
with  our  troops  fleeing  past,  as  they  did  some  days  before,  but 
filing  the  other  way,  and  thus  when  not  a  single  man  remained 
our  two  Brigades  were  kept  alone  on  the  field. 

"At  eleven  o'clock  we  were  marched  out  and  established  as 
a  Picket  in  the  advance.  The  right  of  the  line  (3rd  Infantry) 
covered  by  an  old  Tannery,  with  a  company  from  each  Regiment 
thrown  out  as  skirmishers  on  the  flanks,  and  there  we  remained 
Saturday  night  until  Sunday  morning,  when  the  fight  commenced 
again. 

"The  papers  report  a  second  battle  on  Sunday,  but  this  is 
not  true,  as  the  only  fighting  on  the  right  in  front  of  the  town 
was  done  by  our  Division  and  that  was  not  a  Battle,  but  a  duel 

46 


THE  CIVIL  WAR 

of  sharpshooting.  It  commenced  at  daybreak  by  the  Rebels  (the 
same  terrible  Mississippi  Regiment)  firing  upon  our  Regiment — 
it  continued  about  an  hour,  when  it  was  ordered  that  the  Com- 
pany deployed  as  skirmishers  should  fall  back  into  the  woods. 
This  was  done — by  our  losing  twenty  men. 

"I  wish  Father  could  have  seen  the  Rebels  shoot — it  was  the 
most  beautiful  exhibition  of  skill  with  the  rifle  that  I  have  ever 
beheld.  A  man  showing  himself  at  three  hundred  yards  was  a 
gone  subject,  and  yet  they  used  the  ordinary  open  sights.  A 
party  of  several  of  our  Officers  and  men  got  in  the  loft  of  the 
Tannery;  and  we  enjoyed  some  superb  excitement  in  the  way  of 
target  shooting. 

"We  cut  little  loopholes  in  the  bricks,  and  some  beautiful  shots 
were  made  on  both  sides.  I  was  trying  to  draw  a  bead  on  a  tall 
rebel,  who  showed  his  head  out  of  a  rifle  pit  about  200  yards  off'', 
when  he  sprang  up,  firing  oflPhand,  and  sent  a  bullet  through 
the  same  loophole  that  I  was  aiming  through.  He  spoiled  my 
nerves  for  the  rest  of  the  day. 

"We  remained  all  Sunday  exposed  to  the  same  fire  until  re- 
lieved in  the  evening  by  a  California  Regiment,  who  broke  and 
ran  the  next  morning  when  the  Rebels  opened  on  them. 

"Sunday  night  we  slept  in  the  basement  of  a  superb  Church 
in  Fredericksburg  and  spent  the  next  day  in  strolling  about  the 
town,  although  the  Rebels  shelled  it  from  time  to  time  all  day, 
and  we  lost  several  men  while  walking  quietly  in  the  streets. 
There  were  quantities  of  beautiful  things,  china  and  toilet  orna- 
ments thrown  out  of  the  houses  by  the  soldiers. 

"I  noticed  a  pair  of  the  most  beautiful  Sevres  china  toilet 
bottles ;  also  a  lithograph  of  a  picture  by  Landseer  called  The 
First  Lesson,  a  mate  to  the  Chip  of  the  Old  Block;  it  was  too 
large  to  carry  so  I  cut  out  one  dear  little  pup  in  the  corner  to 
keep  as  a  memento. 

"Monday  afternoon  strange  rumours  floated  through  the  town, 
and  we  noticed  large  bodies  of  troops  marching  towards  the 
River  during  the  whole  day  and  the  remainder  of  the  Regiments 

47 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

'falling  in'  towards  night  with  the  evident  intention  of  joining 
in  the  retreat. 

"At  eight  o'cloclc  Sykes'  Division  received  orders  to  march 
out  and  be  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  outside  of  the  town  and 
remain  until  every  man  had  crossed  the  river,  so  that  the  Regulars 
had  the  distinction  of  remaining  alone  in  the  presence  of  the  whole 
Rebel  army  and  being  the  last  to  retreat,  four  hours  after 
our  troops  had  crossed. 

"The  last  battalion  that  marched  over,  the  bridge  in  the 
blinding  rain  of  Tuesday  morning  was  *the  Third  Infantry'  and 
the  last  horseman  General  Syksel 

"We  are  now  occupying  the  same  old  camp,  and  with  the 
hope,  dear,  darling  Mother,  that  you  will  soon  write,  I  remain, 
with  love  to  all, 

*'Your  affectionate  son, 

.  "Louis." 

In  1863  I  was  in  New  York  upon  the  occasion  of 
the  celebrated  draft  riots,  which  led  to  much  destruction 
of  life  and  property  upon  the  part  of  those  opposed  to 
conscription,  who  were  chiefly  the  Irish,  who  had  always 
hated  the  negroes,  and  saw  no  reason  why  they  should 
fight  a  war  growing  out  of  emancipation.  I  had  come  to 
New  York  from  the  country,  reaching  there  the  eleventh 
of  July.  Most  of  the  rioting  was  uptown,  and  Washing- 
ton Square,  where  I  stayed,  was  a  safe  region.  The  dis- 
turbance first  began  at  the  Provost  Marshal's  Headquar- 
ters on  the  corner  of  46th  Street  and  Third  Avenue, 
Monday,  July  13,  1863.  The  police  and  militia  were  un- 
able to  quell  it,  and  Superintendent  Kennedy,  of  the  for- 
mer, was  almost  beaten  to  death,  while  General  Sanford's 
soldiers  were  powerless  against  the  mob  of  thousands. 
Two  houses  on  Lexington  Avenue  and  one  on  Fifth  Ave- 
nue were  sacked,  and  the  Provost  Marshal's  office  at 
Twenty-eighth  Street  and  Broadway  was  burned.     Col. 

48 


THE  CIVIL  WAR 

O'Brien,  a  well-known  officer,  who  strove  to  address  the 
crowd  and  divert  them,  was  stoned  to  death.  With  cries  of 
"Down  with  the  Abolitionists"  and  "Hurrah  for  Jeff  Da- 
vis," they  proceeded  to  the  Coloured  Orphan  Asylum,  on 
Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-fourth  Street,  and  set  fire  to  it, 
with  resulting  great  loss  of  life.  They  seized  the  Armoury 
on  Second  Avenue,  and  tried  unsuccessfully  to  set  the 
Tribune  building  on  fire. 

As  usual,  weak-kneed  public  officials  only  made  worse 
trouble,  for  Mayor  Wood  addressed  the  mob  as  "My 
friends."  The  Common  Council  voted  to  give  them  $2,- 
500,000  in  bounty,  but  the  Mayor  would  not  hear  of  this 
concession.  The  riot  was  finally  halted  only  after  Arch- 
bishop Hughes  had  addressed  them  and  reinforcements 
of  Federal  troops  had  arrived. 

The  riot  reached  its  climax  at  the  end  of  the  third 
day,  when  General  Kilpatrick  arrived  with  a  large  force. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  loss  of  property  amounted  to 
$2,000,000.  Notwithstanding  all  this  violence,  the  draft 
went  on. 

A  day  or  two  after,  I  went  down  to  Carmine  Street, 
where,  at  the  time,  was  an  old  cemetery  in  which  there 
were  sycamore  trees.  From  the  branches  of  one  of  these 
hung  the  body  of  a  mutilated  negro,  upon  whose  clothes 
kerosene  or  some  other  combustible  fluid  had  been  poured 
and  lit.  From  other  branches  lengths  of  manilla  rope, 
burned  at  the  ends  and  swinging  in  the  wind,  indicated 
where  other  victims  had  been  burned  and  hung.  Never 
since  the  early  negro  riots  in  1741  had  there  been  such 
a  slaughter  of  this  race. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war  New  York  was  a  great 
military  camp,  and  the  public  squares,  notably  the  City 
Hall  Park,  were  given  up  to  the  housing  of  recruits.  As  a 
heavy  bounty  was  paid  to  enlisted  men,  the  temptation  to 

49 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

"jump"  this  was  very  great,  and  there  was  a  regular  or- 
ganisation of  rascals  ever  ready  to  swindle  the  nation. 
In  order  to  keep  them  securely  confined,  City  Hall  Park 
was  surrounded  by  a  tall  board  fence;  but  even  this  was 
not  always  sufficient  to  prevent  a  daring  escape. 

I  did  not  learn  of  the  end  of  the  war  until  several 
months  after  Lee's  surrender.  When  the  Color  ado  j  upon 
which  we  had  passed  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
reached  Callao,  we  were  met  by  the  American  Consul 
and  some  officers  of  the  Chilean  ironclad  Esmeralda,  who 
told  us  of  the  termination  of  hostilities,  the  assassination 
of  President  Lincoln,  the  attack  upon  Seward  and  the 
other  members  of  the  Cabinet.  It  is  needless  to  say  how 
great  was  the  mingled  shock. 


50 


CHAPTER    IV 

THROUjGH    THE    STRAITS   OF   MAGELLAN    IN    1865 

The  Steamship  Colorado — Louis  Agassiz  and  the  Agassiz  Expedition 
— Catamarans  Off  the  Brazilian  Coast — ^Arrival  in  Rio  de  Janeiro 
— The  Corcovado — The  Railroad  of  Dom  Pedro  Segundo — The 
Amazon — Mr.  Roosevelt's  Claims — The  Straits  of  Magellan — 
Sandy  Point — Vicious  Natives — Captain  Slocum's  Experiences — 
An  International  PostofEce — A  Disabled  United  States  Man  of 
War — Wonderful  Scenery. 

In  the  spring  of  1865,  I  had  the  extreme  good  luck  to 
receive  an  invitation  to  form  one  of  a  party  that  was  to 
encircle  South  America,  and  ultimately  land  at  San  Fran- 
cisco. Its  means  of  conveyance  was  the  then  "new  and 
splendid  steamer  Colorado"  which  was  later  placed  in  the 
Oriental  service  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company. 
The  most  interesting  feature  of  the  trip,  and  a  great 
inducement,  was  the  fact  that  we  were  to  take  with  us 
the  members  of  a  scientific  expedition  headed  by  Louis 
Agassiz,  the  great  Swiss  naturalist  and  friend  of  Cuvier, 
who  had  many  years  before  been  urged  to  take  up  the 
unfinished  work  of  Spyx,  and  compile  a  history  of  the 
fresh- water  fish  of  Brazil.  They  were  to  go  as  far  as  Rio 
de  Janeiro,  and  later  to  explore  the  Amazon.  Thanks 
to  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Thayer  the  equipment  was  per- 
fect in  every  way  and  most  liberal,  while  its  personnel 
included  about  a  dozen  of  the  brightest  specialists  in  zool- 
ogy, geology,  conchology,  and  the  allied  sciences  in  Amer- 
ica, with  artists  and  a  photographer.    Besides  these  there 

51 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

was  a  sprinkling  of  ambitious  young  men,  not  the  least 
interesting  of  whom  was  the  late  William  James,  who 
later  became  the  great  psychologist.  Mrs.  Agassiz,  an 
admirable  helper,  was  also  one  of  the  party,  and  after- 
ward wrote  a  volume  describing  the  work  of  her  husband 
and  his  assistants,  which  was  most  exhaustive  and  well 
done. 

The  Colorado  at  the  time  was  considered  to  be  the  last 
word  in  efficiency  and  perfection  of  marine  construction, 
but  she  was  in  fact  a  slow  tub,  about  three  hundred  feet 
long  and  forty- foot  beam.  She  had  clumsy  and  dangerous 
guards  extending  pretty  much  her  whole  length,  a  walk- 
ing-beam engine  of  the  old  type  with  an  enormous  cylin- 
der, and  was  propelled  by  iron  paddle  wheels  which  in 
rough  seas  were  rarely  both  in  the  water  at  the  same 
time.  By  tender  and  solicitous  nursing  she  could  do  nine 
knots  an  hour,  but  usually  seven  or  eight  was  her  pace, 
and  once  when  we  thought  a  Confederate  privateer  was 
after  us  we  made  an  alarming  spurt  of  ten.  Despite  her 
erratic  movements,  so  far  as  our  comfort  was  concerned, 
there  was  for  those  days  little  complaint  to  be  made.  It 
is  true  that  our  staterooms  were  illuminated  by  candles 
or  dim  lard-oil  lamps,  but  we  all  had  plenty  of  room  and 
good  food,  fresh  milk,  and  meat  or  chickens,  the  forward 
part  of  the  ship  being  turned  into  a  miniature  farm- 
yard. 

After  we  parted  with  the  Agassizs  our  party  was  a 
much  smaller  one.  It  included  the  venerable  Bishop  Pot- 
ter of  Pennsylvania  and  his  third  wife,  then  a  bride  of  a 
few  weeks;  Frederick  Billings  of  Vermont,  Vice-Presi- 
dent Schuyler  Colfax,  ex-Governor  Bross  of  Illinois,  and 
Samuel  Bowles,  the  then  editor  of  the  Springfield  Re- 
publican, who  were  on  their  way  to  inspect  the  Union  and 
Central  Pacific  railroads,  the  first  trans-continental  line. 

52 


THROUGH  STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN  IN  1865 

Besides  these  persons,  there  were  two  or  three  invalided 
army  officers,  and  Frank  Huntington  Potter,  who  is  to- 
day known  as  a  great  musician,  and  the  possessor  of  a 
wonderful  tenor  voice. 

We  sailed  from  New  York  upon  a  cold,  snowy  day, 
the  30th  of  March,  1865,  but  soon  ran  into  the  gulf  stream 
and  warm  sunshine.  The  delights  of  the  tropical  seas 
were  accentuated  by  the  contrast  with  the  leaden  skies 
and  dismal  winter  weather  we  had  just  left,  and  when,  a 
week  out,  we  entered  that  vast  collection  of  seaweed 
known  as  the  Saragossa  sea,  which  is  regarded  by  the  su- 
perstitious as  the  graveyard  of  derelict  ships,  we  found 
new  delights,  and  plenty  of  material  for  the  scientific 
members  of  our  party. 

Of  course  the  central  figure  in  our  midst  was  Pro- 
fessor Agassiz,  whose  impressive  personality  appealed 
to  every  one,  from  the  captain  to  the  most  unimportant 
member  of  the  crew,  for  he  always  had  a  kind  word  for 
all,  and  even  did  not  neglect  the  two  or  three  boys  on 
board,  of  whom  I  was  one.  He  was  in  appearance  a 
broad-shouldered  man,  with  a  large  head  and  good  strong 
features.  His  brow  was  high  and  expansive,  his  eyes 
of  light  colour,  and  rather  widely  set  apart,  and  his 
mouth  large  and  expressive;  his  Roman  nose  was,  as  is 
usually  the  case,  an  indication  of  force  and  character, 
and  the  sole  hairy  adornment  of  his  face  was  small,  short 
whiskers.  He  was  usually  smiling  and  happy,  and  I  never 
saw  him  ruffled  or  out  of  temper.  His  great  attraction 
was  his  enthusiasm  over  his  work,  and  his  thoroughness, 
there  being  the  impression  conveyed  that  he  was  always 
working  toward  some  great  and  useful  end.  I  now  think 
of  him  in  association  with  Emerson's  beautiful  words: 
"Every  occupation,  trade,  art,  transaction,  is  a  compend 
of  the  world,  and  a  correlative  of  every  other.    Each  one 

53 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

is  an  entire  emblem  of  human  life;  of  its  good  and  ill,  its 
trials,  its  enemies,  its  course  and  its  end.  And  each  one 
must  somehow  accommodate  the  whole  man  and  recite  all 
his  destiny.  The  world  globe  itself  is  a  drop  of  dew.  The 
microscope  cannot  find  the  animalcule  which  is  less  per- 
fect for  being  little.  Eyes,  ears,  taste,  smell,  motion,  re- 
sistance, appetite,  and  organs  of  reproduction  that  take 
hold  on  eternity, — all  find  room  to  consist  in  the  small 
creature.  So  do  we  put  our  life  into  every  act.  The  true 
doctrine  of  omnipresence  is  that  God  reappears  with  all 
his  parts  in  every  moss  and  cobweb." 

When  the  time  came  for  him  to  begin  his  lectures  in 
the  saloon,  he  found  every  one  vying  with  each  other  to 
supply  specimens  and  help  of  all  kinds,  and  Captain 
Bradbury  often  stopped  the  ship  to  dredge  for  sea  animals, 
of  which  there  was  an  abundance  in  these  warm  waters, 
including  the  exquisite  nautilus,  many  varieties  of  marine 
parasites,  and  minute  Crustacea.  The  sailors,  infected  with 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  great  savant,  wielded  the  buckets 
and  nets  with  a  will,  and  provided  huge  tubs  on  the  deck 
which  became  serviceable  aquaria.  Then  came  the  in- 
formal talks  every  morning  at  ten,  the  audience  being 
composed  not  only  of  Agassiz's  assistants,  but  every  one 
else  who  could  find  time.  Even  the  freshly  combed  and 
washed  stokers  stole  sheepishly  into  the  saloon,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  as  interested  as  any  one.  The  charm  of  the 
lecture  was  that  he  never  said  anything  that  these  sim- 
ple minds  could  not  grasp,  and  sometimes,  as  if  he  had 
said  something  ambiguous  or  involved,  he  would  apologise 
and  explain  in  more  direct  language.  He  depended  upon 
home-made  blackboards,  and  was,  as  I  remember,  an  ad- 
mirable draughtsman.  There  was  no  branch  of  scientific 
investigation  connected  with  our  voyage  in  which  he  failed 
to  take  part,  and  when  we  first  saw  the  Southern  Cross, 

54 


THROUGH  STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN  IN  1865 

that  marvellous  constellation  of  stars,  in  his  joy  he  danced 
a  fandango  one  evening  upon  the  upper  deck,  his  part- 
ner being  the  venerable  Professor  Anthony,  the  con- 
chologist,  who  was  equally  enthusiastic. 

As  we  neared  South  America  his  lectures,  however,  be- 
came more  technical,  and  consisted  in  minute  instructions 
to  his  assistants  preparatory  to  landing.  These  were  well 
thought  out,  for  there  was  no  haphazard  plan,  and  each 
man  knew  his  projected  part. 

We  were  always  much  interested  in  the  antics  of  the 
flying  fish,  which  darted  away  in  every  direction  in  seem- 
ing competition  with  the  ever  faithful  porpoises  who 
raced  under  our  bows  for  many  days.  The  former  oc- 
casionally landed  upon  the  deck,  and  were  immediately 
taken  to  Agassiz,  who  was  greatly  interested  in  their 
mechanism  of  progression.  I  remember  he  explained  that, 
contrary  to  popular  opinion,  their  organs  of  flight  differed 
entirely  from  the  wings  of  birds  and  were  patterned  like 
the  pectoral  fins  of  most  other  fish. 

On  the  twenty-third  of  April  we  made  Cape  Frio,  and 
saw  ahead  of  us  the  Organ  mountains,  which  appear  to 
surround  Rio  de  Janeiro.  The  most  prominent  is  the 
Corcovado,  which  we  afterward  ascended  on  mule-back, 
the  party  consisting  of  Bishop  Potter,  his  wife,  and  the 
Agassizs.  This  picturesque  peak,  which  is  familiar  from 
its  reproduction  in  many  pictures,  is  over  two  thousand 
feet  high,  and  on  one  side  drops  without  any  break  into 
the  harbour.  By  lying  flat  one  can,  if  he  be  sufficiently 
free  from  vertigo,  see  the  wonderful  harbour  beneath,  with 
the  island  of  Santa  Cruz  and  the  Sugar  Loaf  (Pao  de 
Azucar)  on  the  other  side. 

When  the  ship  enters,  the  impression  is  one  of  being 
landlocked  in  some  beautiful  lake.  As  I  looked  down  I 
was  reminded  of  some  of  the  old  pictures  of  Cole's  Voy- 

55 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

age  of  Life  that  I  had  seen  in  my  childhood,  and  which 
always  seemed  exaggerated  and  impossible.  Here  these 
crude  things  were,  however — but  idealised  and  blazing  in 
colour. 

General  James  Watson  Webb,  the  then  American  Min- 
ister, had  a  place  in  Petropolis,  and  for  a  time  lived  at 
the  Hotel  de  Larangeiras,  near  the  seat  of  government. 
The  General,  who  at  home  was  known  as  the  Editor  of 
the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  and  who  had  fought 
at  least  one  fatal  duel,  was  a  doughty  representative  of 
the  United  States  at  a  time  when  some  one  of  decision 
was  needed,  and  he  took  the  place  of  one  Meade,  a  South- 
ern sympathiser,  who  decamped  when  the  war  of  the  Re- 
bellion commenced.  Webb  had  gone  to  Brazil  by  way  of 
Europe,  and  had  asked  for  and  received  the  endorsement 
of  Napoleon  the  Third,  for  it  was  feared  the  sympathy 
of  England  was  largely  with  the  South  and  that  Brazil 
herself  was  not  too  neutral. 

Rio  is  now,  I  hear,  a  magnificent  reconstructed  city,  but 
even  in  the  sixties  it  was  a  pleasant  place,  despite  its  in- 
conveniences and  dirt.  There  was  plenty  of  music  and 
many  theatres,  and  at  the  time  of  our  visit  Offenbach's 
comic  operas  with  Tosti  and  Irma  were  the  rage,  this 
being  before  they  came  to  the  United  States.  The  Em- 
peror, Dom  Pedro  II,  was  an  excellent  ruler,  a  scientific 
man,  and  a  bit  given  to  pomp  and  circumstance.  When 
he  went  to  the  opening  of  the  Chambers  it  was  in  a  gor- 
geous old  coach  that  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  Em- 
peror Francis  the  First,  of  Austria,  and  his  staiF  was 
a  brilliant  one.  Twenty-four  years  after  my  visit  he  was 
deposed  by  a  revolutionary  party,  a  member  of  whom  was 
the  editor  J.  C.  Roderiguez,  whom  I  knew  very  well  in 
New  York.  The  Emperor  did  all  in  his  power  to  help 
Agassiz,  furnishing  laboratories  and  facilitating  the  de- 

56 


THROUGH  STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN  IN  1865 

parture  of  the  expedition,  which  started  up  the  coast  for 
Para,  and  later  ascended  the  Amazon  and  explored  many 
of  its  tributaries.  Many  subsequent  alleged  discoveries, 
especially  regarding  the  fauna  and  flora  of  Brazil,  were 
undoubtedly  anticipated,  not  only  by  Agassiz,  but  others ; 
for  instance,  the  cannibal  fish  referred  to  by  Mr.  Roose- 
velt were  fully  described  by  Charles  Livingston  Bull,  who 
found  them  and  studied  their  vicious  habits  in  the  Orinoco 
several  years  before  the  Colonel's  visit,  while  the  evil  ways 
of  the  vampire  bats  were  minutely  detailed  by  Lieut. 
Herndon,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  as  early  as  1851. 
The  celebrated  "River  Duvida,"  about  which  so  much  has 
been  written  and  said  within  the  past  year  or  two,  was 
probably  one  of  those  branches  of  the  Amazon  entered, 
perhaps  at  its  mouth,  by  some  of  Agassiz's  party.  That 
Mr.  Roosevelt  came  down  such  a  stream  is  undoubtedly 
a  fact,  despite  the  scoffers;  and  Sir  Clements  Markham, 
the  great  English  geographer,  who  had  been  much  in 
South  America,  wrote  me  just  after  the  Roosevelt  arti- 
cles appeared  in  the  London  Daily  Telegraph,  and  at  the 
time  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  lecture  before  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society:  "Mr.  Roosevelt  must  have  descended 
the  Cammona,  flowing  from  the  Cordilliera  Geral  to  the 
Amazon,  a  course  of  640  miles  between  the  rivers  Topa- 
jos  and  Madeira.  The  lower  part  was  known  before, 
but  he  discovered  the  upper  course.  I  have  long  thought 
that  there  must  be  a  longitudinal  valley  with  a  river  be- 
tween the  Topajos  and  the  Madeira.  The  river  cannot  be 
very  large." 

We  took  leave  at  Rio  of  the  Agassiz  party,  who  went 
to  Minas  Gerals,  where  they  split  up  and  later  left  for 
their  respective  stations  in  the  Amazon  valley. 

The  sea  passage  from  Rio  to  the  entrance  of  the  Straits 
of  Magellan  is  an  uninteresting  and  sometimes,  as  we 

5T 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

found  it,  an  intensely  cold  one.  At  times  we  saw  the 
dim  Argentine  coast,  and  again  its  proximity  was  in- 
dicated by  the  flight  of  small  land  birds  which  dropped 
exhausted  upon  the  deck,  but  as  we  neared  the  entrance, 
guarded  on  one  side  by  Cape  Virgin  and  on  the  other  by 
Cape  Espiritu  Santo,  we  were  welcomed  by  large  gather- 
ings of  gulls,  cape  pigeons  and  albatross,  who  never  de- 
serted the  ship  until  we  emerged  into  the  Pacific,  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  away. 

We  steamed  into  the  Straits  on  a  very  cold  morning  in 
May  when  a  northeast  gale  had  kicked  up  a  high  sea 
in  the  face  of  an  ebb  tide.  The  usual  tide  rate  is  never 
less  than  five  knots,  so  that  it  was  not  until  the  after- 
noon that  we  dropped  anchor  in  the  roads  opposite  Sandy 
Point,  which  is  now  known  as  Punta  Arenas,  and  has 
the  distinction  of  being  the  most  southerly  city  in  the 
world,  for  it  is  1600  miles  below  Cape  Town,  and  900 
miles  nearer  the  south  pole  than  Christ  Church  in  New 
Zealand,  from  which  the  English  Antarctic  explorers  have 
recently  departed  upon  their  daring  voyages  of  discovery. 
At  the  time  we  landed  it  was  a  dismal  hole  with  perhaps 
a  dozen  houses,  a  Chilean  governor,  and  a  population 
chiefly  of  Patagonians,  who  wandered  about  in  guanaco 
skin  robes  reaching  to  their  feet,  whose  extraordinary 
size  originally  led  some  early  visitor  to  give  them  their 
name.  They  were  eager  for  barter,  and  I  exchanged  an 
old  hat  for  a  beautiful  ostrich  skin  containing  the  breasts 
of  nine  birds,  while  a  bottle  of  whiskey  had  a  trade  value 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  as  some  of  the  sailors  dis- 
covered, for  they  came  on  board  heavily  laden  with  vari- 
ous furs  and  skins,  ostrich  robes  and  eggs,  and  other  valu- 
able curios.  The  Indians  then  were  as  fond  of  a  battered 
billy-cock  hat  as  the  ordinary  Japanese  coolie  is  to-day. 

Before  the  founding  of  Sandy  Point  in  1851  there  was 

58 


THROUGH  STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN  IN  1865 

a  Chilean  convict  settlement  at  Port  Famine,  about  fifty 
miles  away,  but  as  the  result  of  a  mutiny  the  Governor 
and  all  the  officers  were  killed  and  their  bodies  burned. 
The  ringleader  was  a  lieutenant,  who  with  the  released 
prisoners  seized  an  English  schooner ;  but  their  liberty  was 
short-lived,  for  they  were  all  captured,  and  the  instigator 
of  the  massacre  was  himself  drawn  and  quartered! 

Punta  Arenas  is  to-day,  I  learn,  a  bustling  place,  witH 
many  important  buildings,  electric  lights,  and  the  inevit- 
able trolley  railways.  Its  superb  docks  are  crowded  with 
steamers,  for  it  has  been,  and  will  be,  the  centre  of  trans- 
oceanic commerce  until  the  South  American  coast  trade 
shall  be  diverted  through  the  Panama  Canal.  At  the 
time  of  our  visit  these  ships  were  few  and  far  between 
and  these  were  chiefly  men-of-war,  who  preferred  the 
Straits  to  the  dangerous  delays  of  the  Cape  Horn  gales, 
for  when  obliged  to  round  "the  tip  of  the  continent"  they 
often  had  many  weeks  added  to  the  uncomfortable  voyage, 
perhaps  from  China  or  the  far  East,  materially  increas- 
ing the  length  of  their  home  pennants.  The  longer  voy- 
age was  obligatory  for  small,  poorly-manned  vessels,  be- 
cause of  the  danger  at  that  time  of  attacks  by  the  hostile 
and  treacherous  natives  of  Terra  del  Fuego,  who  were 
always  on  the  lookout  for  incautious  or  helpless  crews  to 
massacre,  or  for  vessels  to  loot.  Under  the  leadership  of 
renegades  they  sought  every  device  to  lure  ships  to  their 
destruction,  and  we  saw  the  bleached  ribs  of  a  schooner 
that  had  a  year  before  been  piled  up  on  the  beach,  and 
every  soul  slaughtered. 

In  1895  Captain  Slocum,  a  clever  Yankee  sailorman, 
took  his  small  forty-foot  sloop  through  these  waters,  and 
was  continually  molested  by  these  venemous  devils — for 
they  are  the  incarnation  of  savage  ferocity.  Worn  out 
and  without  sleep,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  turning  in, 

59 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

one  night,  and  locking  himself  in  his  cabin.  He  first, 
however,  sprinkled  the  deck  with  carpet  tacks.  The  howls 
and  screams  of  the  Fuegians,  who  had  jumped  on  deck 
and  then  quickly  off  into  the  sea,  apprised  him  of  the 
success  of  his  plan. 

We  were  not  annoyed,  but  were  often  hailed  by  a  dirty 
native,  who,  with  his  family,  was  cruising  in  the  family 
dugout,  in  the  bottom  of  which  was  a  fire  used  for  cook- 
ing or  for  signalling.  They  were  armed  only  with  bow 
and  arrows,  and  I  find  that  as  late  as  1895  these  were 
their  sole  weapons.  On  one  occasion  only  were  we  in  dan- 
ger, and  that  was  when  some  of  us  landed  to  bake  mus- 
sels, and  had  we  not  taken  to  the  boats  in  the  midst  of  our 
feast  would  probably  have  been  attacked  by  the  natives 
whose  cries  we  heard  in  the  distance,  and  who  crowded 
down  to  the  bank.  Upon  another  occasion  we  landed  and 
examined  a  native  hut,  which  was  made  of  saplings  bent 
over  and  fastened  at  the  top.  This  was  unoccupied,  and 
had  evidently  been  but  lately  deserted,  for  we  discovered 
the  remnants  of  a  fire,  and  the  empty  shells  of  the  pe- 
culiar mollusks  that  form  a  large  part  of  their  diet. 

The  entire  trip  was  a  succession  of  beautiful  scenic  sur- 
prises. We  were  in  full  view,  at  different  stages,  of  ex- 
quisite glaciers,  smouldering  volcanoes,  floating  icebergs 
and  beetling  cliffs  thousands  of  feet  high.  The  channel 
is  everywhere  tortuous,  sometimes  so  narrow  that  the 
trees  apparently  touch  the  ships,  and  again  there  are 
reaches  nearly  thirty  miles  wide.  In  some  deep  black 
pools  we  saw  the  greatest  variety  of  animal  life.  Ducks 
and  geese  were  at  home  again,  after  a  flight  of  many 
thousand  miles.  These  birds,  only  to  be  shot  with  decoys 
and  blinds  in  Northern  regions,  were  here  absolutely  fear- 
less, and  I  believe  could  have  been  knocked  over  with 
a  stick.    Numerous  seal  and  otter  swam  out  of  reach  of 

60 


THROUGH  STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN  IN  1865 

the  lumbering  Colorado,  and  were  shot  at,  but  without  re- 
sult, by  some  of  the  sportsmen  on  board. 

A  peculiar  bird  which,  I  believe,  is  not  to  be  found 
elsewhere,  is  the  so-called  steamboat  duck,  which  has  rudi- 
mentary wings,  and  paddles  away,  leaving  a  track  of  foam 
in  the  rear.  Everywhere  we  found  delicious  edible  mus- 
sels, many  of  which  contained  fair-sized  pearls,  A  few 
small  beeches  and  stunted  cedars  were  seen,  but  the  vege- 
tation consisted  mainly  of  a  small  abundant  bush  of  the 
ilex  family,  bearing  yellow  blossoms  with  red  tips. 

Near  Borgia  Bay  we  placed  a  board  with  the  name  of 
our  ship  painted  thereon  with  several  other  similar  boards, 
and  left  letters  to  be  collected  by  the  next  vessel  going 
the  other  way;  for  there  is,  or  was,  at  this  point,  a  primi- 
tive international  postoffice,  however,  without  postage 
stamps,  supercilious  or  bored  officials,  or  a  political  post- 
master. There  is  evident  aboriginal  honesty,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  the  letters  are  safe  even  from  the  Fuegian,  for 
we  saw  several  of  remote  date  awaiting  collection  and 
transmission. 

Before  we  left  Rio  we  were  led  to  expect  possible  in- 
terference from  the  Confederate  cruiser  Florida,  but  the 
double  ender  Suwanee,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  had 
been  sent  to  protect  Union  commerce. 

Our  surprise  was  indeed  great  when,  somewhere  near 
Eden  Harbour,  we  found  her  without  coal,  and  rather  in 
need  of  provisions.  For  many  days  her  crew  had  been 
obliged  to  cut  all  the  wood  they  could,  and  the  accumu- 
lation was  often  burned  in  a  few  hours !  We  were  fortu- 
nately able  to  supply  her  wants,  and,  in  return,  she  con- 
voyed us  well  on  our  journey  into  the  Pacific.  Our  own 
armament  up  to  this  time  had  consisted  of  only  two  smooth 
bore  six  pounders,  which  we  discharged  as  we  left  the  in- 
hospitable region  and  saw  the  last  of  Cape  Pillar. 

61 


CHAPTER   V 

STUDYING   MEDICINE 

Why  Men  Follow  This  Profession — Old  Doctors — Old-Fashioned 
Doctors  and  Their  Offices — Dreary  Waiting-Rooms — The  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons — Dr.  Henry  B.  Sands — A  Great 
Surgeon — "Old  Clark" — John  T.  Metcalfe,  a  Wag — "Jim"  Mc- 
Lane — Students'  Pranks — The  Two  Meanest  Men  in  New  York 
■ — T.  G.  Thomas — The  Dissecting  Room — A  Horrible  Identifica- 
tion— The  First  Operation  for  Appendicitis — McBurney  and 
Bull — Dr.  Trudeau  in  the  North  Woods — The  Old  New  York 
Hospital — Experience  as  an  Interne — A  Surgical  Nightmare — 
The  Medical  and  Surgical  Society — Gargantuan  Feasts — Bogus 
Terrapin — Dr.  Meredith  Clymer  and  Hungry  Joe — The  Emmons 
Case— A  Plat  de  Negre— A  Night  Off. 

Medical  education  in  the  sixties  was  of  course  far  more 
primitive  than  it  is  at  the  present  time,  there  being,  as 
to-day,  a  few  really  good  colleges  in  the  large  eastern 
cities,  and  innumerable  little  schools  scattered  everywhere. 
No  preliminary  education  was  then  required,  and  it  was 
possible  in  at  least  one  college  for  a  man  in  haste  to  take 
the  two  needed  courses  for  graduation  in  one  year,  win- 
ter and  summer.  To-day  any  standard  institution  of 
medical  learning  requires  a  preliminary  course  of  several 
years,  and  no  one  can  matriculate  who  has  not  a  uni- 
versity degree  or  its  equivalent.  The  hospital  appoint- 
ments were  limited,  and  the  excellent  system  of  clinical 
requirement  in  vogue  in  Great  Britain  and  elsewhere 
abroad  had  not  been  adopted  in  the  United  States,  so  that 

62 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

often  an  imperfectly  educated  individual  left  college  to 
plunge  at  once  into  practice. 

Why  so  many  men  take  up  the  profession  of  medicine 
is  always  a  puzzle.  Undoubtedly  a  number  are  not  fitted 
by  nature  for  this  calling  and  have  only  adopted  it  be- 
cause it  was  supposed  to  be  remunerative,  or  because  the 
person  happened  to  be  the  son  of  a  doctor.  My  experi- 
ence is  that  comparatively  few  men  have  really  been  "in 
love  with  their  profession"  in  the  beginning — and  fewer 
are  afterward  honestly  enthusiastic.  To-day  the  most 
contented  are  the  research  workers  in  directions  that  never 
permit  them  to  come  into  contact  with  commercialism; 
who  follow  it  to  escape  the  thousand  and  one  buffetings 
incident  to  ingratitude  and  disloyalty  of  patients;  to 
avoid  the  prevalence  of  quackery,  Christian  Science,  os- 
teopathy, and  a  hundred  other  forms  of  popular  clap-trap, 
each  one  of  which  lures  the  impressionable  client  sooner 
or  later.  Happier  far  is  the  man  who  can  afford  to  give 
his  entire  service  to  the  sick  poor,  either  in  the  hospital  or 
elsewhere — the  only  rewards  being  the  consciousness  that 
he  is  doing  good  in  some  way,  and  adding  to  the  advances 
in  his  science,  or  pure  love  of  the  thing. 

Antagonism  to  medicine  as  a  trade,  and  the  cultivation 
of  whole-hearted  devotion  to  study,  has  of  late  become 
largely  possible  through  the  magnificent  generosity  es- 
pecially of  John  D.  Rockefeller.  Since  the  endowment 
of  the  great  institution  that  bears  his  name,  not  only  have 
many  superlative  discoveries  been  made — but  the  example 
of  the  workers  therein  has  led  to  a  much  higher  grade  of 
work. 

It  is  only  the  other  day  that  a  universal  standard  of 
honour  and  dignity  was  maintained  in  my  profession, 
and  I  recall  without  difficulty  the  names  of  a  score  of  old 
doctors  whose  unwritten  code  of  ethics  was  quite  as  exact- 

63 


RECOLLECTIONS  OE  AN  ALIENIST. 

ing  as  that  which  is  now  insisted  upon  by  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  The  very  idea  of  "fee 
splitting,"  and  other  abominations,  would  have  struck  a 
cold  chill  of  righteousness ;  and  the  disingenuous  advertis- 
ing of  recent  times  among  a  certain  portion  of  the  profes- 
sion, would  have  led  to  the  exercise  of  the  most  radical  kind 
of  tabu.  The  old  family  physician  was  often  the  surgeon 
as  well,  although  certain  men  like  Valentine  Mott,  Wil- 
lard  Parker,  and  W.  H.  Van  Buren,  of  New  York  and 
Ashurst,  and  Gross  of  Philadelphia,  did  the  more  impor- 
tant operative  work. 

Every  old  doctor's  office  was  furnished  in  the  most 
primitive  way,  the  contents  being  a  desk,  a  few  hard 
chairs,  a  tall  closet  containing  an  entire  articulated  skele- 
ton, and  on  the  walls  a  diploma  and  one  or  two  sad  medical 
prints.  An  oil  cloth  often  covered  the  floor.  A  well- 
stocked  bookcase  contained  among  other  volumes,  Wat- 
son, Chejme,  Gross,  Bedford,  Andral,  Louis,  Trousseau 
and  the  London  Lancet,  with  perhaps  one  or  two  Ameri- 
can periodicals,  such  as  the  American  Journal  of  the 
Medical  Sciences,  and  the  Medical  Record,  but  even  these 
were  sometimes  absent.  There  were  none  of  the  attributes 
of  comfort  or  convenience  of  to-day — no  stenographer  or 
smartly  dressed  office  nurse — no  white  tiled  operating 
room,  and  none  of  the  dazzling  nickel-plated  electrical 
apparatus  which  is  supposed  to  be  so  attractive,  if  not 
useful.  I  can  well  remember  when  the  installment  of  a 
static  electrical  machine  was  regarded  as  a  mild  species 
of  quackery.  The  instiiiments  were  cumbersome  and 
solid,  and  quite  primitive,  and  the  lancet  and  a  jar  of 
leeches  were  always  on  hand. 

It  is  somewhat  extraordinary  that  so  little  is  done  to 
make  the  doctor's  waiting  room  an  attractive  place,  es- 
pecially as  the  patient  Jias  often  to  wait  a  long  time.    The 

64j 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

most  depressing  casts  or  prints  and  pictures  decorate  the 
walls,  or  there  are  anatomical  plates  and  the  magazines 
are  a  year  old.  Austin  Dohson  in  one  of  his  charming 
poems,  "The  Drama  of  a  Doctor's  Window,"  describes 
the  cheerless  conventional  physician's  office. 

"  'Well,  I  must  wait ;'  the  Doctor's  room, 
"When  I  used  this  expression, 
*'Wore  the  same  official  gloom 
''Attached  to  that  profession, 

''Rendered  severer  by  a  bald 
"And  skinless  gladiator 
"Whose  raw  robustness  first  appalled 
''The   entering   spectator. 

"No  one  would  would  call  the  'Lancet'  gay— - 
"Few  would  avoid  confessing 
"That  'Jones  on  Muscular  Decay' 
"Is  as  a  rule  depressing." 

The  English  physicians,  however,  are  more  considerate 
of  the  literary  needs  of  their  waiting  patients  than  our- 
selves. As  a  rule  the  waiting  room  of  a  London  doctor 
is  only  the  dining-room  used  for  the  occasion,  minus  the 
plate.  The  waiting  rooms  of  many  medical  men  contain 
a  plentiful  supply  of  the  very  latest  periodicals  and  books, 
and  that  of  Sir  Alfred  Fripp  has  an  imposing  collection 
of  shells  and  war  relics  collected  during  the  South  African 
War  in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  these  may  be  said  to 
be  highly  appropriate  decorations,  as  he  is  a  well-known 
surgeon. 

Bleeding  was  a  common  remedial  measure  prior  to 
1870,  and  useful  if  not  abused.  It  then  gradually  fell  into 
disuse,  and  it  is  doubtful  if,  until  a  very  few  years  ago, 

65 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  average  medical  student  knew  at  all  how  to  perform 
it.  I  have  no  doubt  there  are  many  medical  men  of  the 
last  generation  who  never  saw  it  done. 

My  first  medical  studies  were  undertaken  in  the  base- 
ment office  of  a  country  doctor,  a  wizened  and  jolly  little 
man  and  a  "war  veteran,"  who  swapped  stories  with  his 
cronies  who  flocked  in  between  office  hours,  and  sat  upon 
that  flat  and  convenient  bone  known  as  the  sacrum,  the 
chief  anatomical  purpose  of  which  according  to  an  irrever- 
ent foreign  friend  is  to  afford  a  certain  type  of  my  coun- 
trymen with  a  suitable  point  d'appui,  while  taking  their 
ease.  My  attention  was  divided  between  their  gossip  and 
the  inspection  of  the  daily  funeral  across  the  street  at  the 
Methodist  church,  in  front  of  which  numerous  patient 
hack  horses  of  various  ages  and  colours  sought  in  vain  to 
escape  the  tortures  of  the  midsummer  flies.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  say  that  there  was  little  chance  for  real  study, 
and  I  longed  for  the  time  I  should  enter  a  New  York 
preceptor's  office. 

As  the  author  of  Confessio  Medici  says,*  "It  is  certain 
that  some  men  are  indeed  called  to  be  doctors ;  and  so  are 
some  women.  They  are,  as  we  say,  born  doctors;  they 
were  in  medicine.  So  apt  are  they  to  their  work,  and  it 
to  them,  that  they  almost  persuade  me  to  hold  opinion 
with  Pythagoras,  and  to  believe  that  in  some  previous 
existence  they  were  in  general  practice.  Or  their  ability 
may  be  the  result  of  inheritance;  but  we  know  next  to 
nothing  about  inheritance,  neither  is  it  imaginable  by 
what  physical  processes  the  babe  unborn  is  predisposed 
for  our  profession.  Still,  there  are  men  and  women,  but 
not  a  great  number,  created  for  the  Service  of  Medicine: 
who  were  called  to  be  doctors  when  they  were  not  yet 
called  to  be  babies." 

'^  Confessio  Medici^  p.  2. 

66 


DR.    JOSEPH   A.   BLAKE 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

Most  of  the  men  comprising  the  faculty  of  the  old 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  New  York  in  the 
sixties  were  of  this  kind — and  I  doubt  if  even  one  of 
them  ever  allowed  personal  gain  to  supersede  the  duty  of 
his  profession. 

When  I  entered  the  office  of  Henry  B.  Sands  in  1867, 
my  fellow  students  were  Dr.  John  G.  Curtis  and  Dr. 
John  Black  of  Halifax,  the  first  of  whom  died  last  year. 
Dr.  Black,  after  a  few  years,  went  to  London  to  live,  and 
it  is  said  that  his  experience  in  crossing  was  so  dreadful 
that  he  has  remained  there  ever  since  rather  than  run  the 
risks  of  the  sea.  Dr.  Sands,  who  lived  in  Thirteenth 
Street,  was  a  pioneer  in  latter  day  surgery  and  was  the 
first  to  Use  the  antiseptic  methods  of  Lord  Lister.  He 
had  made  his  way  by  sheer  hard  work,  having  been  the 
son  of  a  humble  druggist  on  the  Bowery.  He  had  grad- 
uated from  the  office  of  Willard  Parker,  then  the  Nestor 
of  American  surgery.  Sands  was  a  lovable  man,  with  pre- 
cise little  ways  of  manner  and  speech.  He  was  abso- 
lutely full  of  the  knowledge  of  his  profession,  and  was 
the  most  delicate  and  skilful  operator  I  have  ever  known 
— not  even  excepting  Dr.  Joseph  A.  Blajke,  who  has 
been  so  active  in  France.  He  was  also  an  accomplished 
pianist  and  instinctively  ran  his  fingers  over  the  keys 
wherever  he  found  the  instrument.  I  shall  never  forget 
that  he  was  called  to  perform  a  slight  operation  upon  a 
patient  who  was  a  member  of  a  very  serious  family  on 
Lexington  Avenue.  When  we  reached  the  house  Curtis 
and  I  were  sent  upstairs  to  get  the  patient  ready  and  give 
him  the  anesthetic,  while  Sands  remained  below.  The 
horror  of  the  friends  who  had  keyed  themselves  up  un- 
necessarily to  the  occasion  was  apparent  when  the  notes 
of  Chopin's  "Tarantelle"  ascended  from  below,  and  when, 
after  tickling  the  few  hairs  on  his  otherwise  bald  head 

67 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

with  his  crooked  little  finger,  he  hummed  to  himself  the 
few  remaining  bars  and  proceeded  to  business. 

After  the  Civil  War  the  faculty  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  was  increased  by  the  advent  of 
Dr.  John  C.  Dalton,  a  Boston  physiologist,  who  had  been 
an  army  surgeon.  Dalton  was  one  of  the  most  intel- 
lectual of  men,  quite  original  in  every  way,  and  quite 
independent  in  his  method  of  getting  results.  He  in- 
vented most  of  his  own  apparatus  for  demonstration,  and 
his  style  of  lecturing  was  clear  and  incisive.  So  much 
in  earnest  was  he,  and  so  heartily  did  he  win  the  love 
and  respect  of  all  of  us,  that  there  were  none  of  those 
outbursts  of  student  disorder  that  sometimes  occur.  On 
one  occasion,  however,  when  he  lectured  upon  digestion,  a 
loaf  of  bread  was  passed  about  the  class  to  show  the  ef- 
fects of  fermentation,  and  one  bold  disturber  of  the  peace 
broke  off  a  fragment  and  threw  it  across  the  room  at  a 
friend.  Dalton,  who  saw  this,  simply  stopped  a  moment 
and  said,  "If  the  gentleman  really  desires  recreation,  I  will 
supply  him  with  a  rubber  ball  and  he  can  go  outside." 
This  was  the  only  time  I  ever  knew  him  to  admonish  any 
one.  Willard  Parker  was  not  so  considerate.  He  hated 
the  use  of  tobacco  in  any  form,  and  more  than  once  scolded 
a  western  or  southern  student  who  chewed,  and  was  not 
as  careful  as  he  should  be  where  he  spat! 

Alonzo,  or  "Old"  Clark,  as  he  was  called,  was  the  very 
type  of  the  successful  consultant  of  his  time.  He  came 
to  New  York  from  a  small  college  either  at  Pittsfield, 
Mass.,  or  Woodstock,  Vt.,  I  forget  which,  and  became 
the  leading  exponent  in  his  day  of  American  medicine. 
His  was  a  leonine  figure,  and  his  rugged  features,  which 
were  often  compared  to  those  of  Gladstone,  are  familiar 
even  to-day  to  a  large  number  of  people  who  remember 
his  services  and  kindly  manner  of  trying  to  make  us  good 

68 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

iioctors.  His  name  has  been  coupled  with  that  of  the 
great  French  physician  Louis,  probably  the  greatest  au- 
thority on  fevers.  He  and  the  elder  Austin  Flint,  also 
an  importation,  were  undoubtedly  the  leading  medical 
diagnosticians.  Dr.  Clark  was  very  fond  of  objective 
illustration  and  attached  to  those  morbid  specimens  that 
had  been  in  service  for  years.  In  the  cellar  of  the  old 
building,  under  the  charge  of  the  veteran  Irish  janitor, 
"Andy"  McLaughlin,  were  several  hundred  household 
utensils  brought  from  the  original  school  in  Crosby  Street, 
where  they  had  been  in  process  of  collection  for  ages,  and 
these  contained  desiccated  evidence  of  typhoid.  Notwith- 
standing the  vicissitudes  through  which  they  had  passed, 
and  the  pranks  of  former  students,  who  delighted  in  add- 
ing cigar  stumps  and  other  foreign  substances  to  their 
contents,  they  were  gravely  brought  in  and  shown  to  the 
class  year  after  year,  despite  their  condition.  Alonzo 
Clark  undoubtedly  anticipated  many  recent  bacteriologi- 
cal discoveries,  and  his  "pneumonic  globule"  was  the  fore- 
runner of  the  so-called  pneumococcus  of  to-day. 

In  contrast  with  him  were  two  men  who  were  the  em- 
bodiment of  humour,  one  of  whom  was  James  W.  Mc- 
Lane,  who  was  full  of  anecdote;  the  other,  John  T.  Met- 
calfe, a  delightful  farceur  who  wrote  innumerable  medical 
verses,  in  which  the  foibles  of  his  professional  brothers 
were  held  up  for  pleasant  ridicule.  Upon  one  occasion, 
when  a  popular  purgative  water  was  a  bit  too  freely  en- 
dorsed by  the  doctors  to  conform  with  the  provisions  of 
the  medical  code,  Metcalfe,  at  a  supper  given  by  him, 
introduced  a  number  of  bottles  of  pure  water,  each  bear- 
ing a  burlesque  label,  which  amiably  reflected  upon  the 
malefactors. 

McLane  was  never  tired  of  telling  of  the  rich  and 
miserly  old  man  whose  only  daughter  had  died  after  a 

69 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

protracted  illness.  The  father,  who  had  from  time  to  time 
not  only  complained  of  the  expense  incident  to  her  illness, 
but  disputed  the  doctor's  bill,  demanded  at  the  end  that 
the  flowers  that  had  been  sent  for  several  days  before  her 
demise  should  be  utilised  at  the  funeral  to  save  expense. 

Another  of  McLane's  stories  was  of  a  student  at  one 
of  the  medical  "spreads."  Having  come  from  a  remote 
part  of  the  country  where  the  fruit  was  then  unknown, 
he  proceeded  to  eat  a  banana,  skin  and  all. 

Speaking  of  what  the  Bavarians  call  sparsen  patients, 
I  am  reminded  of  a  "close"  old  man  who  consulted  me 
many  years  ago.  This  Mr.  B.  had  a  brother,  and  between 
them  they  owned  pretty  much  all  the  real  estate  in  a 
neighbouring  city.  When  I  told  a  friend  of  how  my 
patient  had  come  to  my  office  in  shabby  old  clothes  and 
pleaded  poverty,  with  the  result  that  I  charged  him  only 
half  my  usual  fee,  he  told  me  of  another  occasion  when 
some  one  upbraided  the  old  man,  saying,  "Do  you  know, 
Mr.  B.,  I  think  you  are  the  meanest  man  I  have  ever 
met?"  He  replied,  "Perhaps  you  think  so,  but  have  you 
ever  met  my  brother?" 

Dr.  Thomas  was  the  product  of  South  Carolina,  and 
came  to  New  York,  making  an  impression  upon  the  femi- 
nine part  of  the  community,  especially  by  his  redundant 
floridness  of  manner.  His  emphasis  and  fecundity  of 
comparison  made  his  rather  unpleasant  specialty  most 
attractive  to  his  audience;  as  one  of  his  students  said, 
"Thomas's  description  of  an  ordinary  attack  of  indiges- 
tion was  an  epic  poem."  His  were  the  celebrated  "bed- 
side manners"  and  his  method  of  persuading  a  fastidious 
woman  to  take  a  dose  of  nasty  medicine  was  worthy  of  a 
better  cause.  With  all  this  he  was  an  able  and  successful 
physician.  He  was  rather  a  pompous  man,  but  withal 
had  a  nice  sense  of  humour  and  no  desire  to  retaliate  upon 

70 


DR.   JAMES    W.   MC  LANE 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

those  who  poked  fun  at  him.  One  of  my  doubtful  ac- 
compHshments  is  to  caricature  in  a  feeble  way.  I  have 
"blown  off  steam"  in  this  manner  in  the  courtroom  when 
waiting  to  be  called  to  the  witness  stand.  During  the  last 
few  days  of  my  course  at  college  I  made  some  poor  but 
faithful  silhouettes  of  the  faculty.  When  I  entered 
Thomas's  room  he  said,  "Oh,  here  comes  the  young  man 
who  pokes  fun  at  the  faculty!"  and  my  heart  sank;  but 
he  grinned  and  asked  me  a  few  perfunctory  questions,  and 
subsequently  gave  me  his  approving  vote.  It  seems  that 
these  pictures  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Sands  and  had 
been  reproduced  upon  a  menu  for  the  faculty  dinner  the 
night  before. 

The  dissecting  room  of  the  old  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  which  was  then  on  the  corner  of  Twenty- 
third  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue,  was  a  dreary  place,  and 
it  took  a  long  struggle  before  I  could  bring  myself  to 
enter  upon  my  practical  anatomical  studies;  but,  once 
begun,  I  rather  enjoyed  the  work  itself,  and  forgot  the 
horrors.  Once  indeed  a  gruesome  incident  occurred  that 
shocked  several  of  us  who  had  been  allotted  the  body  of 
a  young  woman.  Among  our  number  was  a  young  South- 
ern student  who  immediately  recognised  the  corpse  on' 
the  table  as  that  of  a  sister,  who  I  afterwards  learned  had 
disappeared  from  home  some  years  previously,  and  who 
had  evidently  sunk  to  successive  lower  moral  levels,  liter- 
ally ending  in  the  gutter. 

This  case  brings  to  mind  de  Maupassant's  story  of  a 
sea  captain  who  found  his  lost  sister  in  a  Marseilles 
brothel. 

There  was  nothing  interesting  about  our  wretched 
subjects,  and  even  the  elaborate  tattoo  marks  on  the  sail- 
ors and  criminals  were  not  illuminating.  Stevenson's 
Mody  SnatcherSj  which  describes  a  time  when  "Burking" 

71 


RECOLLECTIONS  OE  AN  ALIENIST. 

was  usual,  gives  one  a  thrill  when  he  reads  it.  The  fate 
of  Gray  ...  it  is  no  wonder  that  Fettes  became  half 
crazy  when,  for  instance,  he  was  called  upon  to  deal  with 
the  body  of  the  man  with  whom  he  had  dined  a  few  days 
before. 

In  my  class  at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons, 
and  in  that  following,  were  a  number  of  men  who  after- 
ward became  very  distinguished,  one  being  the  late 
Charles  McBurney  and  the  other  W.  T.  Bull.  These 
two,  especially  the  latter,  introduced  and  perfected  ab- 
dominal surgery  in  this  country;  for  up  to  1870  most 
people  with  abdominal  wounds  or  disease  were  simply 
treated  with  opium  or  its  alkaloid  and  kept  quiet.  A  small 
proportion  recovered.  To-day  the  deaths  from  appendi- 
citis are  comparatively  exceptional.  When  Bull  wrote 
his  thesis  upon  "Perityphlitis,"  which  was  its  old  name, 
and  advocated  a  free  incision  into  the  abdomen,  I  had  a 
wounded  burglar  under  my  care  at  the  Brooklyn  City 
Hospital,  who  was  seemingly  paralysed  from  his  waist 
down.  This  man  had  a  severe  abdominal  wound  from  a 
pistol  shot;  we  considered  the  outlook  for  him  a  fatal 
one,  and  gave  him  the  usual  opiates.  As  a  matter  of 
form  a  policeman  sat  at  his  bedside  night  and  day,  for  he 
was  under  arrest.  After  a  month  he  was  carried  into 
the  prison  next  door  and,  a  week  after,  actually  escaped 
and  let  himself  down  to  the  ground  by  a  rope.  The 
wound  did  not  really  penetrate  the  abdomen  and  the 
paralysis  was  evidently  temporary ;  but  we  had  before  this 
discussed  the  propriety  of  getting  Dr.  Bull  to  operate! 

Another  distinguished  classmate  was  the  late  Dr.  E.  L. 
Trudeau,  who  was  a  day  older  than  myself  and  a  dear 
friend.  I  was  his  best  man  at  his  marriage  a  few  months 
after  his  graduation,  but  lost  sight  of  him  when  he 
sought  the  asylum  of  the  North  Woods — ^the  only  place 

73 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

where  he  could  live  without  having  hemorrhages.  Here 
it  was  that  he  met  and  treated  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
for  pulmonary  tuberculosis.  Stevenson  never  seemed  to 
like  the  Saranac:  he  described  the  country  as  a  kind  of 
insane  mixture  of  Scotland,  a  touch  of  Switzerland  and  a 
daub  of  America,  with  a  thought  of  the  British  Channel 
in  the  skies. 

Trudeau,  while  not  a  brilliant  student  at  College,  was 
a  most  charming  person,  devoted  to  outdoor  sport — a 
hunter  and  fisherman  and  a  great  deal  of  a  Bayard.  His 
ideals  in  his  profession  were  the  highest,  and  he  devoted 
himself  to  his  life's  work  without  any  reward  whatever, 
helping  the  unfortunates  who  flocked  to  the  North  Woods. 
He  was  pathetically  humorous  about  his  own  sad  condi- 
tion, and  when  at  the  occasion  of  our  last  meeting  I  asked 
him  when  he  would  return  to  New  York  again,  he  said: 
"Well,  Allan — this  left  lung  is  all  gone,  and  the  right 
nearly  put  out  of  business,  and  it  is  all  a  matter  of  pul- 
monic economics,  but  I  shall  stick  to  my  work  to  the  last 
and  see  my  friends  as  long  as  I  last." 

The  old  New  York  Hospital,  where  I  took  the  last 
Harsen  prize  given  there,  and  served  as  a  substitute,  was 
situated  on  lower  Broadway  between  Worth,  Duane  and 
Church  Streets.  It  had  been  in  existence  since  the  year 
1770,  when  it  was  organised  by  Drs.  Bard,  Middleton  and 
Jones,  and  chartered  by  Lord  Dunmore,  the  Colonial 
Governor  of  the  Province  of  New  York.  Although 
burned  to  the  ground  shortly  after  its  completion,  it  was 
quickly  rebuilt  and  reopened  in  1775.  At  different  times 
it  held  patriot  and  British  wounded,  and  for  long  years 
was  one  of  the  landmarks  of  lower  New  York.  Here  a 
riot  took  place,  a  boy  having  seen  some  doctors  holding 
an  autopsy  before  an  open  window.  The  popular  feel- 
ing against  body  stealing  was  then  so  keen  that  the  place 

73 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

was  stormed  and  the  doctors  had  to  flee  for  their  lives. 
Meanwhile  many  people  were  killed  and  wounded. 

Here  it  was  that,  under  the  tutelage  of  a  visiting  staff 
of  excellent  men,  I  got  my  first  clinical  training;  for  the 
hospital  had  not  only  medical  and  surgical  wards  but  a 
building  for  sailors.  The  management  of  the  hospital 
was  old-fashioned,  and  many  customs  which  had  existed 
for  nearly  one  hundred  years  were  in  vogue.  One  was  the 
daily  lunch  which  all  the  staff  attended  standing,  an 
enormous  piece  of  corned  beef  and  huge  pitchers  of  milk 
being  provided.  This  perennial  joint  from  a  Gargantuan 
beef  was  never  absent. 

My  early  hospital  days  were  gloomy  indeed,  especially 
when  I  had  to  come  in  contact  with  the  superannuated 
superintendent  and  his  family,  which  consisted  of  a  num- 
ber of  rather  acidulous  and  frowsy  old  women  with  whom 
we  ate — and  who  not  only  inflicted  upon  us  their  vacuous 
gossip  of  South  Brooklyn  society  but  criticised  us  in  every 
way,  indulging  in  acrimonious  innuendo.  Imagine  these 
daily  repasts  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Squeers,  Mrs.  Jellaby 
and  Mrs.  Mantilini.  The  head  of  the  institution  was  a 
skinflint,  and  the  food  we  received  was  of  the  poorest  and 
cheapest  kind,  evidently  picked  up  here  and  there  for  a 
song. 

The  visiting  staff  for  the  most  part  were  pompous  and 
second-rate  men.  There  comes  to  me,  still  vividly,  a  hor- 
rid experience  with  an  instrument  invented  by  one  of  the 
attending  surgeons,  which  was  supposed  permanently  to 
close  arteries  by  turning  in  their  internal  coats  and  plug- 
ging them,  thus  doing  away  with  ligatures.  A  patient 
had  been  operated  upon  one  afternoon,  her  thigh  having 
been  amputated,  and  this  machine  used.  The  flaps  were 
all  adjusted  and  sewed  up,  and  although  she  had  lost  a 
great  deal  of  blood,  she  was  supposed  to  be  doing  well. 

74 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

I  had  gone  to  bed  very  tired,  but  at  midniglit  was  sum- 
moned to  find  the  wretched  woman  bleeding  to  death.  I 
was  quite  alone,  all  of  the  house  staif  being  away.  There 
was  of  course  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  open  up  the 
wound  and  hunt  for  each  spurting  artery.  This  I  did 
and  sent  for  the  much-abused  ligatures.  She  was  the 
subject  of  a  disease  where  the  vessels  were  absolutely 
fragile,  and  whenever  I  tied,  the  ligature  cut  through  un- 
less I  used  a  minimum  degree  of  force.  Finally,  although 
the  woman  was  almost  exsanguinated,  and  had  a  fluttering 
pulse,  the  work  was  done  and  I  watched  by  her  bedside 
until  relieved.    She  fortunately  recovered. 

There  is  in  New  York  a  quasi-social  medical  society 
that  has  been  in  existence  for  three-quarters  of  a  century, 
and  which  has  always  included  a  number  of  the  leading 
men  in  New  York  practise.  The  meetings  consist  of  a  dis- 
cussion of  reported  cases,  a  supper  and  conversazione.  It 
is  known  as  the  Medical  and  Surgical  Society  and  its 
minutes  include  the  names  of  most  of  the  prominent  men 
identified  with  the  medical  history  of  New  York,  such  as 
Drs.  Francis,  Valentine  Mott,  Blakeman,  Wilkes,  Elliot, 
Weir,  Barker,  Keyes  and  others. 

The  suppers  were  usually  events  which  would  have  met 
with  the  approval  of  Brillat  Savarin  himself.  Delicacies 
brought  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  wines  that  had  been 
carried  around  the  globe  in  the  holds  of  sailing  vessels, 
canvas-back  ducks  and  terrapin,  both  of  which  are  be- 
coming extinct,  antebellum  hams  from  Virginia  planta- 
tions and  wild  rice  from  South  Carolina  were  usually 
provided ;  and,  of  them  all,  the  feasts  arranged  by  the  late 
John  T.  Metcalfe,  who  was  not  only  an  accomplished 
physician  but  a  gourmet  with  more  finished  gastronomic 
skill  than  even  Sam  Ward,  took  the  first  rank.  The  scien- 
tific discussions  were  as  a  rule  good,  but  occasionally  a 

75 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

dreadful  bore  would  get  his  innings,  exhibiting  perhaps  a 
nail  extracted  from  the  foot  of  a  patient  or  a  button  from 
the  oesophagus  of  a  neglected  child.    Such  an  one  v/as  old 

Dr.  P ,  a  veritable  sarcophagus  of  learning  and  a 

surgeon  whose  mortuary  mistakes  were  appalling,  al- 
though he  did  his  best  to  conceal  the  failures  of  this  kind. 
One  night  he  minutely  related  the  dreary  and  dull  details 
of  a  very  commonplace  case  where  he  had  operated,  giv- 
ing no  inkling  of  the  result.  Sands,  who  was  a  great 
tease,  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  ask,  "And  was 

the  operation  successful.  Dr.  P ?"     "Yes,  sir,"  was 

the  reply,  "but  the  patient  died  on  the  table."  And  there- 
after, recovering  from  his  evident  chagrin,  he  proceeded 
to  relate  the  second  case  in  the  same  aggravatingly  stupid 
manner,  omitting  the  conclusion.  Every  one  saw  the 
roguish  twinkle  in  Sands'  eye,  who  repeated  his  original 
query.  In  a  condition  of  great  irritability  and  annoyance 
the  old  doctor  petulantly  and  jerkily  replied  after  a  de- 
moralising pause,  "And  he  died  also,  sir." 

Although  this  was  at  a  time  prior  to  the  introduction 
of  aseptic  surgery,  some  of  his  failures  were  probably  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  he  washed  his  instrmnents  in  the 
tubs  of  the  laundry  which  was  back  of  his  basement  office. 

Speaking  of  terrapin,  I  know  of  an  excellent  story  in 
which  my  friend.  Dr.  George  Huntington,  figures.  He 
is  now  Professor  of  Anatomy  at  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  and  one  of  the  cleverest  comparative 
anatomists  in  the  world.  One  day,  while  dining  with  a 
friend  at  a  widely  known  restaurant  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
they  ordered  terrapin  Maryland.  A  few  minutes  later 
Huntington  quickly  removed  from  his  mouth  a  small 
bone,  and  later  called  up  the  head  waiter.  "And  now — 
be  good  enough  to  tell  me  how  long  you  have  served 
muskrat  for  terrapin?"    The  reply  was  an  indignant  and 

!76 


.n)-    .x^ 


4^ 


V^ 


TV  •      OYEZ  « 


AN  INVITATION  TO  THE  MEDICAL  AND   SURGICAL 
SOCIETY 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

angry  denial.  "Well,"  said  the  Doctor,  "I  have  here  the 
upper  jaw  of  the  Fiber  Zibetheticus  or  common  muskrat. 
Unless  you  make  some  explanation  I  shall  expose  you." 
The  result,  after  the  Swiss  maitre  d'hotel  had  had  time  to 
cool  off,  was  a  confession  that  most  of  the  "terrapin" 
furnished  at  public  eating  places  in  New  York  and  else- 
where was  really  muskrat,  raised  and  supplied  by  an  en- 
terprising "farmer"  in  Philadelphia.  I  have  upon  one 
occasion  eaten  this  animal  and  enjoyed  it,  even  when  it 
was  not  masquerading  under  another  name.  It  is  a 
graminivorous  rodent  and  perfectly  clean  in  all  its  habits. 

An  interesting  figure  in  New  York  medical  life  in  my 
time  was  old  Dr.  Meredith  Clymer,  who,  when  he  died 
several  years  ago  was  nearly  ninety,  having  graduated  in 
Philadelphia  in  1837.  He  was  a  learned  man,  and  may 
be  truly  said  to  have  been  the  father  of  modern  neurology 
in  the  United  States.  He  worked  hard  almost  until  the 
day  of  his  death,  and  made  a  great  reputation  in  the 
Walworth  and  other  murder  cases  as  an  alienist.  Some 
of  his  briefs  prepared  within  a  year  or  two  of  the  end 
of  his  life  were  masterpieces  of  medico-legal  composition, 
an  art  unknown  to  the  younger  men  of  to-day.  His  per- 
sonal peculiarities  and  eccentricities,  however,  alienated 
him  from  most  of  his  old  friends,  while  he  spoke  sor- 
rowfully about  the  bad  manners  of  the  present  day, 
especially  of  the  young  men  at  his  club,  some  of  whom 
struck  matches  at  his  private  table  without  so  much  as 
"by  your  leave,"  or  sat  on  the  table  in  the  public  lounge 
where  the  newspapers  were  to  be  found.  When  he  talked 
of  the  post-revolutionary  society  of  Philadelphia,  from 
whence  he  came,  he  was  delightful;  for  in  his  day  he  was 
a  great  beau  and  was  a  grandson  of  one  of  the  signers. 

I  recall  an  adventure  which  for  a  time  threatened  to 
sever   our   pleasant   relations.     Professor    Emmons    of 

77 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Washington,  D.  C,  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  had 
married  a  woman  as  the  result  of  an  advertisement  for 
some  one  who  could  utilise  her  services  to  sew  on  buttons 
and  mend  clothing.  She  was  a  handsome,  dashing  and 
fascinating  half -Portuguese,  and  during  their  married  life 
poor  Emmons  had  a  wretched  time  by  reason  of  her 
drinking  habits  and  later  actual  insanity.  Her  case  fig- 
ured in  the  newspapers  for  months.  I  first  saw  her  at 
Bloomingdale  Asylum  where  she  proposed  to  the  elderly 
and  most  proper  Medical  Superintendent  that  they  should 
go  bathing  together.  Upon  one  occasion,  when  her  con- 
dition was  apparently  better,  she  gave  a  dinner  party  in 
Washington  to  a  large  collection  of  distinguished  people, 
and  when  the  butler  removed  a  cover  from  an  imposing 
salver,  a  little  negro  baby  was  found  beneath,  crowing  in 
its  complete  nudity. 

She  was  later  confined  in  an  asylum  and  subsequently 
went  to  London  where  she  was  arrested  and  arraigned  at 
Bow  Street  and  sent  home.  I  met  her  at  New  York, 
on  her  arrival  by  one  of  the  Monarch  steamers,  the  cap- 
tain of  which  had  become  infatuated  with  her  like  the 
rest,  and  refused  to  recognise  either  myself  or  Dr.  Cly- 
mer,  whom  I  had  asked  to  join  me  in  examining  her. 
We  subsequently  committed  her,  and  the  doctor  took  her 
to  an  asylum  in  Rhode  Island ;  but  on  the  way  he  also  fell 
a  victim  to  her  charms,  and  despite  the  fact  that  the  day 
before  he  had  sworn  she  was  insane,  permitted  her  to 
escape — then  there  was  fresh  trouble.  I  think  he  was 
subsequently  very  sorry. 

One  day  when  he  was  standing  looking  into  the  window 
of  a  shop  under  the  old  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  he  was 
approached  by  "Hungry  Joe,"  a  noted  confidence  man, 
who  probably  took  him  for  an  "upstate  farmer"  and  a 
possible  victim.    "Well,"  said  he,  "how  is  my  old  friend 

78 


STUDYING  MEDICINE 

Mr.  Johnson  of  Syracuse,  and  how  did  you  leave  all  the 
folks  ?"  Clymer  looked  at  him  'contemptuously  for  a  full 
minute  and  replied,  "Ah,  my  dear  young  friend,  you  are 
much  mistaken.  I  am  in  reality  Mr.  Ketchem  of  Sing 
Sing,  and  the  folks  are  eagerly  waiting  for  you  up  the 
river!" 

Dr.  F.  S,  was  one  of  the  most  popular  medical  gradu- 
ates of  Harvard  who  came  to  New  York  in  the  sixties, 
and  was  in  the  habit  of  attending  the  monthly  dinners  of 
the  alumni  association  where  the  fun  "waxed  fast  and 
furious."  His  wife  was  rather  an  exacting  woman,  and 
insisted  that  he  should  come  home  at  an  early  hour.  Upon 
one  occasion  the  jollity  increased  until  midnight  when  he 
looked  at  his  watch  and  suddenly  felt  the  enormity  of  his 
wrong-doing.  Now  he  had  been  engaged  to  attend  a  rich 
young  woman  who  was  about  to  become  a  mother.  The 
idea  occurred  to  send  a  message  to  his  wife  to  the  effect 
that  he  had  been  suddenly  called  to  accouche  this  patient. 
The  next  morning  his  wife  at  breakfast  was  delighted, 
asking  for  details  of  the  colour  of  the  child's  hair,  eyes,  its 
weight,  etc.,  and  he  answered  without  embarrassment  or 
hesitation. 

A  month  later  found  him  at  another  dinner  and  as 
reckless  of  the  passage  of  time  as  upon  the  first  occasion. 
Mounted  upon  the  table  he  made  a  speech,  and  every  one 
was  in  a  more  or  less  oblivious  condition.  When  the  early 
morning  daylight  filtered  through  the  smoke-laden  atmos- 
phere, he  was  aghast.  Some  one  suggested  that  an  explan- 
atory note  be  sent  his  wife,  and  without  considering  what 
its  contents  should  be,  he  repeated  the  message  of  the 
month  before,  even  mentioning  the  patient's  name.  For- 
ever after  he  was  discredited  in  the  eyes  of  his  suspicious 
wife,  and  became  the  steadiest,  most  circumspect,  and  do- 
mestic of  men. 
i  79 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

San  Francisco  in  the  Beginning — The  Vigilantes — California  Society 
in  the  Early  Days — The  Sand  Hills — "Nob  Hill" — Extrava- 
gance— Chinatown — The  Transcontinental  Railroads — Crossing 
the  Plains — Nevada — The  Pioneer  Stage  Line — A  Night  Ride 
with  Adah  Isaacs  Menken — Salt  Lake  City — A  Versatile  Family 
— Denver  to  Kansas  City — Dangerous  Indians — The  Seventh 
Cavalry — Rough  Pistol  Practice — ^A  Sea  of  Buffalo — ^A  Hunt — 
The  Amenities  of  Army  Life  in  the  Late  Sixties — Denver  in 
1870 — The  Country  of  Feuds — Cumberland  Gap. 

In  1849,  when  the  seething  mass  of  heterogeneous  human 
beings  was  poured  through  the  Golden  Gate,  San  Fran- 
cisco was  a  wholly  Spanish  place,  but  the  gold  seekers  and 
their  followers  soon  turned  it  into  the  same  kind  of  hell 
that  has  always  been  found  in  other  parts  of  the  world 
invaded  by  the  miner.  The  original  collection  of  rickety 
wooden  houses  was  wiped  out  by  a  fire  in  1851,  and  no 
serious  attempt  was  made  to  rebuild  subsequently  until 
just  before  the  Civil  War.  Owing  to  the  lawlessness  of 
the  population  there  was  much  early  violence,  and  this 
was  met  by  the  Vigilantes,  who  without  ceremony,  and 
often  after  the  most  perfunctory  and  informal  trial,  strung 
up  the  murderer  to  the  nearest  tree  or  sign  post.  Epi- 
demics of  murder  and  consequent  lynching  were,  I  learn, 
common  up  to  a  few  years  before  I  first  reached  San 
Francisco,  and  even  later,  and  often  the  sound  of  a  great 
bell  would  summon  the  Committee  together  from  all  parts 

80 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

of  the  city  to  take  prompt  and  vigorous  action.  The 
Vigilance  Committee  was  composed  of  the  leading  mer- 
chants, lawyers,  doctors,  and  all  those  who  stood  for  law 
and  order,  so  that  within  a  short  time  they  were  feared  by 
the  dangerous  classes,  many  of  whom  were  obliged  to 
decamp. 

For  a  long  time  California  society  was  most  mixed  and 
unsettled,  for  very  few  of  the  better  class  of  immigrants 
brought  their  wives  with  them,  although  later  the  estab- 
lishment of  homes  under  the  best  conditions  was  general. 
Many  of  the  early  arrivals  had  a  rather  informal  life  and 
the  consequence  was  that  there  were  numerous  illegitimate 
children  who  did  not  suffer  for  the  sins  of  the  fathers,  and 
had  good  social  positions. 

In  1865,  although  Kearny,  Market  and  some  other 
streets  were,  as  they  now  are,  important  business  thorough- 
fares, and  the  celebrated  "Nob  Hill"  was  the  residential 
region  of  the  rich  and  well-to-do,  there  were  many  poorly 
built  houses,  much  squalor,  and  a  great  many  dreary  sand 
hills.  It  was  in  one  of  these  "sand  lots"  that  the  anti- 
Chinese  agitator  Dennis  Kearny  held  forth.  My  uncle 
lived  in  Bryant  Street,  and  near  him  were  the  great  red- 
wood palaces  of  the  multi-millionaire  mining  men.  These 
were  in  every  way  vulgar  and  showy  erections,  filled  with 
costly  and  garish  furniture  and  decorations.  There  was  a 
pleasant  small  society,  nevertheless,  consisting  of  the  Mc- 
Allisters, Judge  Ogden  Hoffman,  the  Maynards  and 
other  really  interesting  people  with  agreeable  families. 

Everything  was  free  and  easy,  and  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  extravagance.  There  were  no  such  things  as 
nickels  or  copper  cents,  the  smallest  coin  in  use  being  the 
ten-cent  piece.  Everything  was  much  more  dear  than  in 
the  East,  and  the  cost  of  living  was  excessive. 

Much  has  been  written  about  Chinatown,  which  was  a 

81 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

city  by  itself,  full  of  big  buildings,  and  with  tier  upon  tier 
of  subterranean  cellars,  reached  by  rickety  stairs  and  lad- 
ders, without  ventilation  and  with  but  little  artificial  light. 
Here  and  there  ran  underground  passages  like  rabbit- 
warrens,  and  as  the  inmates  were  murderers,  thieves, 
gamblers,  and  other  fugitives  from  justice,  they  could 
easily  escape  when  pursued  by  the  police.  Many  feet  be- 
low the  ground  flourished  fan-tan  and  poker  games,  opium 
smoking  dens  and  brothels. 

Shortly  before  I  arrived  these  places  had  undergone  a 
raid  by  a  mob,  and  many  Chinamen  were  killed,  but  this 
only  effected  a  temporary  subsidence  of  the  hideous  vice. 
Murders  ceased  for  a  time,  but  not  for  long. 

The  waterfront  was  full  of  shanghaiing  and  kidnapping, 
and  many  decent,  well-dressed  people  were  drugged  and 
pressed  into  service  for  the  depleted  ships  crowding  the 
harbour,  whose  crews  had  deserted  to  go  up  to  the  gold 
fields. 

Every  one  on  the  Pacific  coast  was  most  enthusiastic 
about  the  completion  of  the  great  railroad  system,  which 
was  finally  made  possible  by  the  exertions  chiefly  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Co.,  then  the  leading  New  York  bankers,  and  the 
open  handedness  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
Before  this  time  the  Pacific  coast  was  in  great  measure 
isolated,  the  only  means  of  conmiunication  with  the  East 
being  bj^  the  steamers  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Company  acting 
in  concert  with  the  Panama  Railroad,  or  by  a  service  via 
Tehuantepec,  and  by  various  clipper  ships  that  came  by 
way  of  Cape  Horn.  Besides  these,  the  long,  dangerous 
and  uncomfortable  transit  of  the  "Plains"  was  made  by 
"prairie-schooners,"  and  many  emigrants  came  this  way, 
despite  the  Indians,  the  deserts  and  possible  starvation. 

The  first  recorded  transit  of  the  plains  was  by  one  Syl- 
vester Pattie,  a  Virginian,  and  five  companions,  in  1824, 

8S 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

preceding  John  C.  Fremont  by  a  number  of  years.  They 
started  on  June  20th,  1824,  and  did  not  reach  the  Pacific 
Ocean  in  the  neighbourhood  of  San  Diego  until  about  ten 
months  later,  having  undergone  unheard-of  hardships :  In- 
dian attacks,  deprivation  of  water  and  food,  and  many 
other  dangers. 

My  father,  who  went  to  San  Francisco  in  1851  to  be- 
come a  law  partner  of  his  wife's  brother,  Robert  McLane 
(afterwards  Governor  of  Maryland  and  Ambassador  to 
France)  and  Judge  Ogden  HoiFman,  voyaged  out  in  one 
of  the  crazy  old  ships,  in  company  with  a  horde  of  miners 
and  fortune  seekers,  but  he  found  the  country  uncongenial 
and  returned  home  in  a  year  or  two,  there  being  little  or 
no  civil  litigation  except  of  a  petty  kind. 

In  spite  of  the  apparent  plenitude  of  money,  there 
were  many  unfortunates  who  had  "gone  broke"  and  were 
destitute  until  the  mining  market  should  take  a  turn  for 
the  better.  Some  of  them  lived  at  the  free  lunch  counters 
of  the  numerous  great  bar  rooms,  which  were  ornately 
decorated  and  gilded.  The  large  tables  of  these  places 
were  well  stocked  with  great  joints  of  bear  meat  and  veni- 
son, game,  wild  turkeys,  chicken  and  salmon.  A  single 
drink,  costing  "two  bits,"  or  twenty-five  cents,  would  sup- 
ply incidentally  a  hearty  meal;  meanwhile  the  pleasures 
of  a  "refined  minstrel  entertainment"  would  add  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  esthetic  enjoyment.  It  is  hard  to  see  how 
any  money  was  made  by  the  proprietors,  but  doubtless  the 
gambling  in  other  rooms  swelled  the  profits.  Suicides  were 
as  common  as  in  Monte  Carlo  at  a  later  period,  and  the 
ever-ready  Colt's  revolver,  then  in  fashion,  was  available 
to  settle  many  a  "gentlemen's  quarrel." 

Long  before  the  present  development  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia, one  or  two  rampant  land  booms  occurred.  One  of 
these  was  antecedent  to  1870,  the  projector  being  a  man 

83 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

named  Horton.  When  I  visited  San  Diego  in  1871  it  con- 
sisted of  a  great  number  of  comfortably  built  houses,  all 
deserted  except  the  Horton  House — a  hotel  in  the  throes 
of  failure,  a  great  many  of  the  extra  jobs  being  done  by 
the  landlord  himself  and  the  members  of  his  family.  Los 
Angeles  was  a  sparse  settlement  and  the  incomers  were 
just  then  commencing  to  plant  oranges  and  other  fruits 
and  starting  developments  that  have  since  made  the  state 
the  greatest  citrus  region  of  the  world. 

Some  of  the  people,  notably  the  old  Spanish  Califor- 
nians,  were  delightfully  cultivated  and  agreeable.  Here 
I  met  Mrs.  Burton  and  her  lovely  daughter,  the  former 
being  the  widow  of  General  Burton,  a  distinguished  old 
officer  of  the  United  States  Army.  The  Stones  and  the 
Miners  were  also  representatives  of  a  stock  that  is  rapidly 
dying  out,  in  spite  of  American  intermarriages.  Many  of 
these  people  had  vast  estates,  and  from  one  a  great  amount 
of  the  Orchella  used  in  the  world  for  dyeing  was  obtained. 
This  is  identical  with  the  ancient  Tyrian  purple  obtained 
from  the  Murex  hrandaris,  and  was  very  valuable,  but 
probably  its  use  since  has  now  been  supplanted  by  the  in- 
evitable aniline  colours.  There  was  also  obtained  much 
gold  dust,  and  a  great  deal  of  abalone  shell  pearl  from  the 
wonderful  pools  and  caves  along  the  coast. 

Local  transportation  on  the  Pacific  Coast  was  ample 
but  primitive.  Short  lines  of  rail,  stage  coaches,  and  river 
boats  on  the  Sacramento  and  Stockton  rivers,  were  the 
means  of  getting  about,  yet  one  still  saw  pack  trains  and 
mining  outfits  in  profusion  as  late  as  1871.  There  was 
much  of  the  atmosphere  of  Bret  Harte's  stories.  In  fact 
at  that  time  he  had  written  his  best  short  stories,  and  was 
afterward  founder  of  the  Overland  Monthly.  I  knew  him 
very  well,  and  he  told  me  that  in  every  instance  he  had 

84 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

chosen  his  characters  from  real  life,  even  the  lovable  Oak- 
smith,  the  gambler. 

A  prosperous  and  well-managed  service  of  coaches  ran 
over  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  to  Virginia  City,  via 
Placerville  and  Carson,  which  was  known  as  the  Pioneer 
Line,  and  was  equipped  with  Concord  coaches,  blooded 
stock,  and  for  a  great  part  of  the  way  the  route  passed 
over  well-kept  and  even  sprinkled  roads.  The  time  made 
was  excellent,  and  compared  favourably  with  the  railroads. 
One  reckless  driver,  who  was  a  great  deal  of  a  character, 
and  nearly  frightened  Horace  Greeley  to  death,  was  Hank 
Mudge,  with  whom  we  crossed,  finding  him  to  be  a  very 
good  fellow  with  a  fine  sense  of  humour  and  a  lot  of 
anecdote. 

A  friend  and  myself  were  offered  a  stage  to  ourselves 
from  which  to  see  the  country,  and  we  were  permitted  to 
visit  many  of  the  placer  and  other  gold  mines  that  were 
then  being  worked  at  Murphy's  and  elsewhere.  We  saw 
the  Calavaras  group  of  big  trees,  through  the  trunk  of  one 
of  which  a  man  can  ride,  and  afterwards  Lake  Bigler  or 
Tahoe,  which  is  one  of  the  highest  bodies  of  water  on 
earth.  Its  specific  gravity  is  so  low  that  it  was  impossible 
to  swim,  and  the  only  pleasure  one  could  have  was  that 
of  bathing  in  its  absolutely  transparent,  refracting,  and 
illusive  waters.  The  result  was  very  general  and  severe 
sunburn,  and  I  regret  to  say  that  my  experience  of  an 
hour  cost  me  a  delay  of  two  weeks  in  bed  with  high  fever 
and  intense  agony,  blistering,  and  subsequent  complete 
exfoliation  of  the  outer  skin. 

At  this  time  Carson  and  Virginia  City,  both  in  Nevada, 
were  rival  mining  towns,  the  latter  being  the  location  of 
the  celebrated  Comstock  lode  where  Flood,  O'Brien  and 
Mackay  made  their  enormous  fortunes.  There  was  much 
local  jealousy,  and  tu  quoque  abuse.    Carson  was  a  Mor- 

85 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

mon  town,  and  had  little  cause  for  existence  except  that  it 
was  a  herding  place  of  these  people. 

Ross  Brown,  who  at  the  time  wrote  entertainingly  of  the 
region,  described  "Virginia  City  as  a  mudhole;  climate^ 
hurricane  and  snow;  water ^  a  dilution  of  arsenic,  plumbago 
and  copper;  wood,  none  at  all,  except  sage  brush;  no  title 
to  property,  and  no  property  worth  having."  "Carson 
City:  mere  accident;  occupation  of  the  inhabitants ,  way- 
laying strangers  bound  for  Virginia  City ;  business^,  selling 
whiskey;  so  dull  at  that  that  men  fall  asleep  in  the  middle 
of  the  street  going  from  one  groggery  to  another ;  produc- 
tion, grass  and  weeds  on  plaza." 

If  Carson,  through  which  we  passed,  was  dull  and  full 
of  Digger  Indians,  and  other  human  vermin,  Virginia  City 
was  a  seething  hell  of  excitement.  Every  one  was  drinking 
and  fighting,  and  speculating,  and  rapid  deals  were  made 
in  "Mammoth,"  "Lady  Bryant,"  "Wild  Cat,"  "Root  Hog 
or  Die,"  "Dry  Up"  and  "You  Bet."  Great  properties, 
such  for  instance  as  "Ophir^"  made  wild  extremes,  and  in 
the  San  Francisco  stock  exchange  fluctuated  from  a  few 
cents  to  thousands  of  dollars  a  share,  with  a  resulting  long 
list  of  "princes  and  paupers."  We  soon  had  enough  of 
this,  and  started  back  down  the  mountains.  Before  we 
left  our  hotel  we  received  a  visit  from  the  local  Pioneer 
Stage  agent,  who  asked  if  we  objected  to  the  company  of 
"a  lady,"  who  wished  to  go  down  to  'Frisco.  As  it  was 
a  beautiful  moonlight  night,  and  warm  besides,  we  secured 
top  seats,  and  gave  the  interior  of  the  stage  to  the  woman 
passenger,  who  turned  put  to  be  the  well-known  Adah 
Isaacs  Menken,  the  wife  at  one  time  of  John  C.  Heenan, 
the  prize  fighter,  and  afterwards,  in  Paris,  the  Goddess 
to  whom  the  elder  Dumas  wrote  many  amatory  sonnets. 
To  old  theatre  goers  she  may  be  remembered  as  the  orig- 
inal and  only  Mazeppa,  who,  bound  to  the  "fiery,  untamed 

86 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

steed,"  careered  over  the  stage  of  the  Chatham  Street 
Theatre  and  many  playhouses  throughout  the  country. 
The  exchange  of  places  was  no  loss,  for  from  our  box-seats 
we  had  a  glorious  view,  as  we  rode  over  the  tops  of  the 
Sierras,  through  the  Devil's  Gate  and  down  to  PlacerviUe, 
where  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  inside  passenger,  who  in 
the  early  morning  looked  anything  but  attractive  in  all  her 
frowsiness  and  overnight  change  in  facial  decoration. 

In  1871  I  paid  a  second  visit  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  find- 
ing great  changes  and  a  very  different  kind  of  civilisation. 
Salt  Lake  City,  now  a  place  of  100,000,  until  the  death 
of  Brigham  Young,  whom  I  saw,  retained  all  its  Mormon 
customs ;  in  fact,  it  was  not  until  1904,  twenty-seven  years 
after  his  death,  that  any  one  had  the  temerity  seriously  to 
attack  polygamy,  and  then  only  for  political  reasons. 

In  the  early  seventies  many  tragedies  undoubtedly  oc- 
curred through  the  activity  of  the  "Avenging  Angels," 
especially  in  the  southwestern  part  of  Utah.  At  the  time 
of  my  sojourn  in  1870  I  heard  many  stories,  evidently  well 
authenticated,  of  the  fate  of  lukewarm  ar  traitorous  Mor- 
mons, who  had  been  put  out  of  the  way  for  the  good  of 
the  sect. 

Despite  all  statements  to  the  contrary,  this  community 
was  a  happy  and  prosperous  one,  and  I  was  surprised  to 
find  a  certain  division  of  labour,  the  women  being  anything 
but  downtrodden,  or  mere  chattels.  Two  of  the  wives  of 
Mr.  Clausen,  who  was  one  of  the  heads  of  the  church,  were 
in  the  stock  company  of  the  local  theatre.  One  of  his  sev- 
eral sons  consulted  me  professionally  some  years  later, 
and  I  learned  he  has  since  become  a  clever  musician.  The 
audiences  at  public  places  largely  consisted  of  women  and 
children.  So  far  as  I  could  learn  there  was  little  jealousy 
or  domestic  unhappiness. 

Although  the  activities  of  those  who  carry  the  Mormon 

87 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

propaganda  extend  all  over  Europe,  with  a  resulting  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  foreign  converts  who  flock  to 
Utah,  the  prevailing  physiognomy  is  one  of  commonplace 
Americanism,  and  differs  but  little  from  that  found  in 
other  places. 

Denver  was  originally  an  offshoot  of  Greeley,  a  small 
town  a  few  miles  north  which  was  founded  through  the 
exertions  of  the  New  York  Tribune  and  the  persistent  ad- 
vice of  Horace  Greeley  to  "go  West."  It  was,  in  1870, 
beautifully  situated  at  the  base  of  the  Kocky  Mountains, 
and  Pike's  Peak  was  a  prominent  part  of  the  background. 
At  that  time  it  consisted  of  a  muddy  stream  with  a  small 
and  heterogeneous  collection  of  frame  and  brick  buildings 
on  either  side.  The  railroads,  notably  the  Denver  &  Santa 
Fe,  and  the  Ogden  branch  of  the  Union  Pacific,  entered 
the  town,  or  what  there  was  of  it.  I  do  not  think  there 
were  two  hundred  inhabitants.  To-day  it  is  a  great  min- 
ing centre  and  has  a  population  of  at  least  150,000.  I  sat 
on  a  hill  to  the  east  of  the  city  and  made  a  rough  sketch, 
while  about  me  coursed  antelope,  and  prairie  dogs  darted 
into  their  underground  homes.  The  city  now  extends  at 
least  two  miles  beyond  my  hill,  and  the  ground  is  covered 
by  fine  houses.  In  the  early  days  Denver  City,  as  it  was 
called,  had  only  stage  connection,  or  the  mail  was  brought 
by  pony  riders. 

The  railroad  journey  from  Denver  to  Kansas  City  was,, 
in  those  days,  one  likely  to  be  attended  by  extreme  danger 
from  attacks  by  Indians,  as  well  as  highwaymen.  My 
brother  had  been  killed  four  years  before  by  the  former, 
in  what  was  regarded  as  a  punitive  expedition  in  Southern 
Kansas.  Until  1887,  except  in  a  few  locations,  Indian  up- 
risings were  frequent  and  disastrous,  because  of  the  nig- 
gardly behaviour  and  indifference  of  the  Government, 
which  never  sent  troops  enough;  for,  thanks  to  the  igno- 

88 


DENVER  IN   1871 

Sketched  by  the  author 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

ranee  and  obstinacy  of  average  politicians,  who  entertain 
the  long-enduring  delusion  that  we  are  invincible,  we  were 
never  (and  probably  shall  never  be)  in  a  proper  state  of 
preparedness. 

The  admirable  book  of  Mrs.  G.  A.  Custer,  under  whose 
husband  my  brother  fought,  most  graphically  depicts  the 
border  horrors  just  as  they  existed  at  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War  and  at  the  time  of  the  organisation  of  the  famous 
Seventh  Cavalry — Indians,  floods,  scurvy,  cholera,  mu- 
tiny and  desertion  were  the  dangers  that  made  the  protec- 
tion of  life  and  property  so  difficult,  and  were  it  not  for 
the  heroic  bravery  of  the  officers,  headed  by  Custer  and 
Major  Wolcott  Gibbs,  this  now  famous  cavalry  regi- 
ment would  have  been  swept  out  of  existence.  On  my  re- 
turn I  passed  near  or  through  Hays,  Wallace,  Riley,  Mc- 
Pherson  and  other  forts  that  have  to-day  become  more 
or  less  thriving  and  populous  Kansas  cities,  and  we  saw 
much  of  the  frontier  life. 

The  rough  element  at  the  time  was  in  great  measure 
increased,  and  I  had  a  friend  whose  room  was  on  the 
second  floor  in  the  frame  hotel  at  Hays.  His  slumbers 
were  often  broken  by  the  bullets  fired  through  the  floor 
by  the  roysterers  in  the  bar  room  below,  but  luckily  none 
of  them  did  much  harm. 

On  the  morning  after  we  left  Denver  our  train  came  to 
a  standstill,  and  we  all  flocked  out  to  find  the  cause.  From 
within  a  mile  of  the  track,  as  far  north  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  and  for  miles  east  and  west,  was  a  vast  moving 
crowd  of  buffalo,  that  in  the  sunlight  looked  like  a  brown 
sea.  This  was  the  great  Southern  herd  on  its  way  to 
Dakota  and  Canada.  It  is  depressing  to  think  that  in 
less  than  fifty  years  they  have  been  virtually  exterminated. 
It  is  difficult  to-day  to  find  even  the  bleached  skulls  and 

89 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

bones  which  have  been  collected  by  the  manufacturers  of 
fertilisers,  and  even  of  buttons. 

One  of  the  diversions  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry,  when 
they  were  not  surrounded  by  Indians  on  the  warpath, 
was  buffalo  hunting.  Custer  had  an  exciting  encounter 
with  one  of  these  brutes,  and  having  accidentally  shot  his 
favourite  charger  at  the  same  time,  was  dismounted,  and 
came  very  near  being  gored.  .  The  buffalo  changed  his 
mind,  however,  and  withdrew,  and  the  General,  separated 
many  miles  from  his  command,  and  in  a  strange  and 
hostile  country,  was  in  a  double  peril;  but  he  managed  to 
later  join  the  troops.  He  was  not  only  a  dashing  officer, 
but  a  woodsman  as  well,  and  was  seldom  at  a  loss  for  ex- 
pedients. He  was  most  winning  and  honest  in  manner, 
hated  shams,  and  a  certain  kind  of  display,  glorying  in  the 
regular  service.  I  well  remember  standing  with  him  out- 
side of  the  old  Hotel  Brunswick  during  a  militia  parade. 
When  a  regiment  passed  us  with  immaculate  white  duck 
trousers  he  quietly  said,  "Oh,  how  I  would  like  to  have 
those  boys  out  on  the  plains  for  an  hour  or  two."  His 
soldierly  instinct  rebelled  against  any  but  the  real  thing 
and  real  fitness.  He  told  me  later  of  one  of  the  regi- 
mental buffalo  hunts,  one  side  having  killed  twelve  ani- 
mals. Four  of  these  had  fallen  at  the  hand  of  my  brother, 
who  was  the  hero  of  the  day,  sitting  later  at  the  right  hand 
of  his  Colonel  and  being  toasted  in  native  champagne 
brought  all  the  way  from  St.  Louis! 

My  brother  wrote  from  Fort  Lyon,  Colorado,  Septem- 
ber 30th,  1866: 

"Gen.  Sherman  arrived  here  last  night,  returning  from  his  trip 
to  New  Mexico,  to  spend  the  day  with  us  and  inspect  the  Fort, 
which  is  an  important  one  in  the  Indian  country,  and  I  thought 
he  looked  queer  when  he  heard  /  was  to  command  it, 

"Tell  Allan  that  I  have  at  least  reached  the  height  of  my  am- 

90 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

bition  as  a  hunter,  and  had  a  buffalo  hunt  with  unusual  success 
for  a  beginner.  We  started  early  in  the  morning  from  Fort 
Larned — a  large  party :  Crane,  the  sutler,  a  great  shot  and  rider ; 
Asbury,  Kaiser,  the  Doctor,  Williams  (the  Indian  trader,  a  son 
of  an  ex-member  of  Congress  from  Rochester),  and  myself.  We 
were  all  well  mounted;  I  on  an  Indian  pony  whose  disposition 
and  temper  were  more  like  those  of  an  Irish  terrier  than  any- 
thing else  I  can  compare  him  to.  I  had  my  rifle  in  the  wagon 
which  followed  us  to  bring  in  the  game,  and  my  revolver  around 
my  waist.  After  a  ride  of  three  miles  we  could  see  the  prairie 
in  the  distance  dotted  with  a  mass  of  little  black  objects  which 
were  pronounced  to  be  buffalo. 

"The  guide  worked  and  dodged  around  the  hills,  or  rather 
roll,  of  the  prairie  until  we  found  ourselves  about  200  yards  to 
the  leeward,  when  all  got  off,  tightened  our  girths,  put  our  hats 
tight  on  our  heads,  and  got  ready  for  the  rush.  My  pony  was 
as  excited  as  myself,  and  fairly  quivered  all  over  with  the  smell 
of  the  animals — the  word  ready  was  given.  We  trailed  to  the  hill 
that  divided  us,  and  came  in  full  sight  of  them;  there  must  have 
been  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  the  herd — the  most  hideous 
creatures  that  God  ever  created.  The  bulls  almost  black,  except 
the  dull,  dirty  brown  of  the  mane,  and  their  horrid  little  eyes 
blinking  out  of  a  huge  mass  of  hair.  As  soon  as  they  saw  us 
there  was  a  snort;  the  cows  and  calves  hurried  in  to  the  centre 
of  the  herd,  while  the  vicious-looking  old  bulls  deployed  on  the 
flank  and  rear. 

"As  we  neared  the  spot  some  of  the  party  yelled  and  we 
charged,  each  man  for  himself,  as  the  herd  turned  and  ran. 

"You  ought  to  have  seen  the  pony.  His  mane,  which  was 
cropped,  bristled  on  end,  his  ears  laid  back  like  main  springs, 
and  he  fairly  flew,  as  chance  would  have  it,  right  at  a  bull,  the 
oldest  and  toughest  in  the  herd.  (The  rest  of  the  party  went 
after  cows,  which  are  better  to  eat.) 

"It  was  more  like  going  into  action  than  anything  else  as  the 
pany  ranged  alongside  and  ran  neck  and  neck  with  the  bull, 
the  animal  with  its  huge  head  down,  its  eyes  staring,  tongue  out 

91 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  thundering  along  with  a  peculiar  lope  which  tried  the  speed 
of  a  good  horse.  I  managed  to  shoot  him  twice  in  the  side,  when 
he  turned  and  charged  me.  This  did  not  put  the  pony  out  a  bit; 
he  jumped  sideways  and  turned  with  the  buffalo,  who  again  re- 
sumed his  course  with  the  herd.  After  him  went  the  pony  and  I 
fired  my  remaining  four  shots  with  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Mr. 
Bull  run  on  apparently  unhurt.  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  I 
used  some  very  bad  language,  directed  in  part  to  the  bull,  the 
pistol,  and,  with  an  ingratitude  that  is  unparalleled,  to  the  poor 
pony.  The  bull  ran  about  two  hundred  yards,  stopped,  turned 
round  and  then  began  tearing  up  the  ground  with  a  sullen,  angry 
roar  that  showed  he  was  badly  hurt. 

"I  reloaded  my  revolver  (which  seemed  to  take  an  hour)  and 
rode  after  him  again — this  time  the  pony  was  cautious — as  I 
neared  him  he  stopped  pawing,  reared  his  head  high,  took  a  good 
look,  lowered  it,  stuck  his  tail  up  like  a  ramrod  and  came  right 
for  me  on  the  run.  The  pony  dodged  him  and  I  shot  him  again 
as  he  passed.  His  flight  was  now  over;  he  stopped  and  braced 
himself  on  his  feet  with  his  tail  well  up,  and  rolled  over  at  the 
next  shot,  game  to  the  last,  with  a  proud  disdainful  look  at  me 
that  would  have  become  a  dying  Caesar.  Poor  fellow,  he  died 
game  in  defence  of  his  family,  and  I  felt  sorry  for  him  after  it 
was  all  over,  although  when  I  turned  to  go  back  I  found  that  I  had 
run  two  miles  since  I  first  fired  at  him. 

"I  shot  another  in  the  afternoon  and  we  all  came  to  camp." 

In  many  regiments  of  the  regular  service  there  was 
great  friction  because  officers,  enlisted  men  of  humble  ori- 
gin before  their  advancement  and  receipt  of  a  commission, 
married  women  in  their  own  position  in  life.  This  was  es- 
pecially true  in  the  new  regiments  organised  at  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War.  The  Seventh  Cavalry  had  officers  of  all 
kinds:  there  were  soldiers  of  fortune  from  the  European 
armies;  one  had  had  a  position  in  the  Papal  Zouaves; 
others  were  poor  noblemen  with  good  titles,  which  they 
kept  secret,  and  there  were  many  volunteer  officers  who 

92 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

had  fought  bravely  in  the  Civil  War  that  had  just  ended. 

The  wives  of  old  and  efficient  soldiers,  deserving  as  the 
latter  were,  had  not  developed  at  all.  The  story  is  told 
by  Mrs.  Custer  of  an  Irish  woman  who  was  originally  a 
laundress  and  later  the  widow  of  an  old  regular  soldier 
who  held  a  commission  in  the  Volunteers  and  had  been 
killed  in  action.  She  drew  the  pension  of  a  Major's 
widow,  so  it  was  not  money  that  brought  her  back  to  the 
frontier  post.  | 

On  her  arrival  she  found  a  place  which  she  temporarily 
filled,  until  a  time  when  it  was  thought  she  might  obtain 
another  with  the  wife  of  a  former  enlisted  man  who  had 
received  a  commission.  It  seems  that  this  woman,  the  new 
employer,  had  herself  been  a  laundress.  The  woman  ap- 
plying for  work,  when  offered  the  job,  turned  to  the  inter- 
mediary, placed  her  arms  akimbo  and  independently  an- 
nounced her  platform  as  follows :    "Mrs. ,  I  ken  work 

for  a  leddy,  but  I  can't  go  there;  there  was  a  time  when 
Mrs. and  I  had  toobs  side  by  side." 

Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  eighties  I  had  interests 
that  often  took  me  to  that  interesting  part  of  the  middle 
west  where  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina  join, 
on  top  of  the  Cumberland  Gap.  During  the  Civil  War 
this  had  been  a  strategic  point,  but  for  a  long  time  there- 
after it  was  given  up  to  the  natives,  a  degenerate  and 
lawless  lot,  and  the  descendants  of  bondsmen  who  had 
before  the  Revolution  escaped  from  Virginia.  Through 
isolation  and  intermarriage  they  developed  peculiar  men- 
tal and  bodily  characteristics,  and  were  mostly  a  long- 
haired, gaunt  people,  with  over-refined  and  abnormally 
delicate  features. 

They  were  daring  and  insubordinate,  and  followed  a 
code  of  their  own  which  led  them  for  trivial  reasons  to 
take  life  in  the  most  reckless  manner.    When  an  English 

93 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

land  company  bought  up  their  farms  for  five  dollars  an 
acre  and  sold  them  for  town  lots  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  each,  they  naturally  boiled  with  resentful 
indignation,  and  not  only  potted  the  outsiders  who  they 
declared  had  cheated  them,  but  renewed  many  old  and 
dormant  local  feuds.  I  have  seen  several  men  killed  for  no 
apparent  reason.  One  night  I  rode  over  the  divide  and 
we  were  pleasantly  saluted  by  a  tall,  serious  native  armed 
with  a  rifle.  As  we  continued  our  ride,  we  met  another 
on  his  way  up  on  horseback,  also  armed.  In  the  space 
of  ten  minutes  two  shots  rang  out,  and  both  men  were 
killed  together.  This  was  the  result  of  a  long-standing 
quarrel  and  they  were  ready  for  each  other. 

An  old  family  named  Turner  was  practically  extermi- 
nated as  the  result  of  one  of  these  feuds,  and  the  natives 
were  in  appearance  and  manner  so  gentle  and  attractive 
that  it  was  difficult  to  believe  them  to  be  the  bloodthirsty 
wretches  they  were.  Besides  this  disregard  of  human 
life  their  morals  were  impeccable,  and  they  were  chivalrous 
and  generous. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Land  Company  was  a  young 
man  whose  only  fault  was  that  he  shocked  local  taste  and 
angered  the  community  by  wearing  rather  pronounced 
dress,  one  article  of  which  was  a  pair  of  smart  white  riding 
breeches  made  by  a  London  tailor.  His  life  was  therefore 
for  a  time  made  a  torment  by  some  of  his  neighbours, 
who  after  nightfall  made  his  house  the  target  for  their 
rifles.  One  dark  night  I  visited  him,  and  on  our  way  over 
to  the  railroad  station,  the  lantern  was  shot  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  negro  who  carried  it. 

The  operations  of  the  English  company,  which  included 
the  building  of  a  vast  hotel  and  sanitarium,  the  cost  of 
which  was  nearly  a  million  of  dollars,  were  rudely  upset 
by  the  Baring  failure.    The  largest  of  these  buildings  was 

94 


THE  OLD  FAR  WEST 

sold  to  a  Western  second-hand  lumber  dealer  for  less 
than  one-tenth  of  its  original  cost,  and  some  of  the  grand 
pianos,  mirrors,  tapestry  and  superb  furniture  were  bid 
in  by  the  natives  themselves  for  practically  nothing  and 
found  new  homes  in  the  mountain  shacks. 


95 


CHAPTER   VII 

EARLY   STRUGGLES 

Taking  an  Office — An  Appointment — Mayor  Oakey  Hall  and  the 
Tweed  "Ring" — Political  Corruption — I  Am  Offered  a  Health 
Commissionership — Smallpox  in  1873 — Two  Exciting  Adven- 
tures— Dr.  Fox's  Experience — The  "Five  Points" — Subterranean 
Cellars — I  Shoot  a  Policeman — Amateur  Surgery — The  Orange 
Riots — The  Cholera  Scare  in  1894 — Two  "High  Kickers"  on  the 
Normania — I  Devote  Myself  to  My  Specialty — Blackwell's 
Island — A  Perilous  Marine  Adventure — Fast  Railway  Time — A 
Montreal  Consultation — Old  New  York  Society — Doctors'  Fees. 

My  debut  in  my  profession  was  made  in  1871  with  the 
help  of  Dr.  Marion  Sims,  who  was  then  at  the  height  of 
his  fame  and  a  prominent  speciahst.  He  had  been  the 
physician  of  the  Empress  Eugenie,  and  came  back  to  the 
United  States  after  her  flight  to  England.  I  was  told  by 
him  that  it  was  a  great  mistake  to  take  a  poor  office  in  a 
second-rate  locality,  so  he  introduced  me  to  a  landlady  of 
a  boarding  house  in  East  Twenty-eighth  Street,  who  put 
at  my  service  a  gorgeous  suite  of  rooms  with  much  "real 
elegant"  furniture.  This  was  in  the  early  summer,  and  I 
waited  day  by  day  in  the  hot,  dreary  city  for  patients  who 
never  came. 

But  two  or  three  individuals  entered  my  office;  one  a 
book  agent,  another  a  collector  for  funds  for  the  yellow 
fever  sufferers  in  the  South.  One  of  my  later  patients  was 
a  large  and  very  effusive  Irish  woman  who  came  over 
from  Brooklyn  to  see  me.    She  was  always  very  grateful 

96 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

and  one  day  asked  me  for  a  few  of  my  cards.  At  the  next 
visit  I  was  horrified  to  hear  her  say,  "Faith,  docthur,  I 
crossed  on  the  ferryboat  and  Hft  a  card  in  aitch  sate,  and 
bedad  you  now  ought  to  have  a  lot  of  patients." 

Upon  another  occasion  she  accounted  for  her  failure  to 
come  the  week  before  because  "a  drunken  lady"'  had  in- 
vaded her  flat.  This  reminds  me  of  the  anecdote  of  the 
dispensary  told  by  George  Russell.  A  woman  presented 
herself  with  a  wound  which  seemingly  was  a  bite.  As  the 
surgeon  was  dressing  it  he  said,  "I  cannot  make  out  what 
sort  of  a  creature  bit  you.  This  is  too  small  for  a  horse's 
bite,  and  too  large  for  a  dog's."  "Oh,  sir,"  replied  the 
patient,  "it  wasn't  an  animal;  it  was  another  lydy." 

My  new  sign  evidently  attracted  no  one,  and  mean- 
while my  small  capital  dwindled  exceedingly,  and  I  began 
to  think  of  something  else  to  do.  It  was  a  sad  blow,  after 
all  the  nice  things  that  had  been  said  at  the  Commence- 
ment about  the  coming  "emoluments"  that  were  to  be 
mine,  and  the  optimism,  flattery  and  encouragement  from 
the  faculty  who  beamed  upon  the  class  of  indigent  but 
hopeful  young  sawbones.  The  prospect  was  practically 
starvation  if  I  kept  on  as  I  had  commenced. 

A  friend  had  suggested  that  I  should  seek  a  public 
position  in  the  Health  Department,  which  has  never  been 
so  decent  since  that  time,  when  it  was  the  only  city  organi- 
sation that  escaped  at  all  the  serious  muddling  of  corrupt 
politicians,  although  the  political  member  of  the  board  was 
occasionally  obnoxious  and  tried  to  force  some  of  us  out, 
by  suggesting  an  amendment  to  dress  us  in  uniform  like 
policemen.  All  the  younger  men  were  of  good  standing, 
and  some  have  since  attained  distinction,  among  them  the 
late  Drs.  E.  G.  Janeway,  Joseph  Bryant,  Stuyvesant  F. 
Morris,  William  Post  and  Roger  Sherman  Tracy.  To 
two  of  the  commissioners  in  particular,  Dr.  Samuel  Oakley 

97 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Vanderpool,  Sr.,  and  Prof.  Charles  F.  Chandler,  we  owed 
much,  for  they  encouraged  special  scientific  work,  and  I 
made  reports  upon  lead  and  wall-paper  poisoning,  street 
paving,  and  various  other  interesting  subjects. 

Thanks  to  the  influence  of  Commissioner  Isaac  Bell, 
an  old  New  Yorker  and  friend  of  my  uncle  Robert 
McLane,  later  Ambassador  to  France,  I  was  appointed  as 
an  Inspector  by  Mayor  Oakey  Hall,  a  cultured,  able 
lawyer,  who  had  not  then  been  openly  accused  of  a  criminal 
affiliation  with  Tweed,  Sweeney,  Garvin,  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  "ring,"  but  who  was  later  pilloried  in  all  the 
newspapers  and  caricatured  unmercifully  by  Thomas 
Nast,  in  a  way  that  was  his  ruin.  After  he  was  deposed, 
he  felt  himself  to  be  a  great  deal  of  a  martyr,  and  although 
it  would  have  been  a  great  deal  better  had  he  kept  silent, 
he  determined  to  vindicate  himself.  A  few  months  later 
he  wrote  a  play  called  The  Crucible,  which  was  produced 
in  December,  1875,  in  the  Park  Theatre  on  Broadway 
near  Twenty-second  Street,  in  which  he  played  the  part 
of  Wilmot  Kierin,  a  misjudged  convict  in  prison  stripes, 
wearing  his  gold-rimmed  eyeglasses.  It  was  a  dull,  un- 
convincing production  and  gained  him  no  sympathy — 
except  for  his  awfully  bad  acting. 

At  this  time  every  one  was  supposed  to  pay  tribute  to 
Tammany  Hall,  and  bribery  was  everywhere  extant.  It 
was  a  regular  incident  for  a  "collector"  to  enter  one's  office 
to  get  something  for  "the  Hall,"  and  every  mail  brought 
tickets  for  benefits  and  balls,  all  of  which  were  numbered 
so  that  it  could  be  seen  who  did  not  pay.  During  my  term 
of  office  the  daughter  of  Boss  Tweed  was  married,  and  the 
daily  papers  contained  a  list  of  the  wedding  presents, 
which  were  of  the  most  costly  kind.  It  was  amusing  to 
note  the  donors  of  the  gifts,  the  names  of  whom  were 

98 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

those  prominent  in  New  York  society,  and  one  wondered 
what  had  been  the  consideration. 

When  I  was  first  appointed  I  was  made  responsible  for 
the  whole  district  on  the  West  side  of  New  York  from 
Fifty-ninth  Street  to  the  end  of  Manhattan  Island,  and 
the  population  consisted  chiefly  of  pigs  and  goats  and  men 
and  women  of  the  dirtiest  and  poorest  description.  The 
keeping  of  both  of  the  first  mentioned  varieties  of  live- 
stock was  strictly  forbidden  by  the  Sanitary  Code,  but 
their  owners  had  managed  to  evade  the  law  in  a  way  that 
I  found  it  impossible  to  countenance,  much  to  the  aston- 
ishment of  the  squatters,  who  persisted  in  their  attempts 
to  bring  tribute  ranging  from  brass  rings  or  painted  horse- 
shoes to  five-dollar  bills. 

Another  difiiculty  was  to  force  the  owners  of  vacant 
lots  to  make  sewer  connections  and  keep  their  land  in 
good  sanitary  condition. 

During  the  early  seventies,  owing  to  the  exactions  of 
the  Tweed  party,  and  the  uncertainty  of  alleged  improve- 
ments, the  owners  of  real  estate  were  constantly  in  terror 
of  interference.  The  "Boss,"  however,  looked  after  his 
friends,  and  when  it  was  proposed  to  run  a  new  street  or 
avenue  through  the  unimproved  upper  part  of  the  island 
his  cronies  had  an  early  tip  and  were  able  to  speculate 
with  advantage.  The  outsiders  were  often  unable  to  retain 
their  lots,  so  thoroughly  were  they  taxed  for  the  new 
extensions.  I  know  that  one  owner  of  sunken  lots  on  Fifth 
Avenue  that  are  now  worth  half  a  million,  after  fighting 
an  order  of  the  Health  Department  to  connect  them  with 
the  sewer,  was  quite  willing  to  sell  them  at  four  thousand 
dollars  each. 

Happily  just  now  there  is  less  political  corruption  than 
in  the  days  of  certain  notorious  bosses  in  New  York  City, 
when  every  political  office  was  said  to  be  paid  for,  either 

99 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

by  direct  or  indirect  taxation  to  the  "organisation"  or  the 
"old  man."  Even  within  a  year  I  learned  of  the  case  of  a 
would-be  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  tried  corrup- 
tion to  get  the  office  and  has  spent  a  year  in  state's  prison. 

While  Mayor  of  New  York,  Abram  Hewitt  offered 
me  the  Health  Commissionership,  but  at  the  time,  under 
the  law,  the  candidate  must  have  the  approval  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen.  A  friend  of  mine  received  a  visit 
from  an  alleged  representative  of  this  board,  who  de- 
manded that  I  should  pay  $5,000  for  my  confirmation  at 
its  hands,  and  when  he  expressed  his  astonishment  he  was 
told  that  "I  ought  not  to  kick,"  for  all  the  judges  had  to 
pay  from  $10,000  to  $15,000  for  this  favour.  It  is  unnec- 
essary to  say  that  my  name  was  withdrawn.  I  certainly 
believe  the  justices  were  libelled. 

In  1873  New  York  was  visited  by  a  plague  of  smallpox, 
which  for  a  time  became  almost  uncontrollable,  despite  the 
house-to-house  vaccination.  This  was  somewhat  interfered 
with  by  the  opponents  of  this  vital  precaution;  these  agi- 
tators inflamed  unintelligent  public  opinion,  and  the  dis- 
ease spread  with  great  rapidity.  Our  little  band  of  physi- 
cians was  worked  sometimes  for  twenty  hours  out  of  the 
twenty-four,  and  the  plan  was  for  two  men  to  take  all 
the  newly  reported  cases.  I  have  myself  seen  as  many  as 
thirty-two  patients  in  a  day  in  extreme  points  of  the  city. 
One  of  the  inspectors  made  the  diagnosis,  and  then  the 
person  would  be  taken  to  the  hospital  on  North  Brothers' 
Island.  If  there  was  a  refusal  to  go,  a  joint  report  was 
made  by  a  second  physician,  and  then  the  patient  was 
taken,  if  necessary,  by  force. 

I  had  several  rather  disagreeable  experiences,  the  first 
of  which  was  an  assault  upon  me  by  a  stalwart  German, 
father  of  the  patient,  who  attacked  me  with  an  axe;  but 
providentially  I  escaped  injury.    A  second  case  is  worthy 

100 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

of  more  extended  mention.  The  case  was  reported  in 
East  Houston  Street,  a  very  bad  locality,  and  a  joint 
report  decreed  that  the  woman,  who  was  the  wife  of  a  low 
ward  politician,  should  be  taken  away.  Reports  from 
"the  skirmisher"  we  sent  ahead  showed  that  in  the  street 
about  the  house  was  a  huge  crowd,  and  that  in  a  saloon  two 
doors  away  a  number  of  drunken  men  were  preparing  to 
attack  us.  They  had  taken  down  such  Civil  War  relics  as 
guns  and  sabres  that  adorned  the  bar,  and  were  uttering 
loud  curses  of  vengeance.  I  sent  to  the  nearby  police 
station  and  secured  a  guard  of  ten  or  twelve  policemen 
with  night-sticks,  and  then  we  marched  to  the  door  of  the 
tenement  house;  but  at  the  last  minute  they  failed  me, 
being  afraid  of  the  disease,  and  I  was  obliged  to  go  up  the 
four  or  five  flights  alone  with  a  faithful  Sanitary  police- 
man who  was  immune.  Our  upward  progress  was  not 
indicative  of  a  cordial  reception,  for  not  only  were  we 
cursed  in  all  tongues,  but  the  offensive  contents  of  certain 
domestic  utensils  were  thrown  upon  us  over  the  banisters 
by  the  tenants  of  the  various  stories.  Finally  we  reached 
the  closed  door  where  the  sick  woman  lay,  and  heard  the 
ominous  click  of  a  trigger  and  the  snorting  of  an  angry 
man.  Hesitation  would  not  do,  so  putting  our  feet  and 
then  our  shoulders  against  the  flimsy  door,  it  fell  in,  and 
there  stood  a  brawny  and  gigantic  Irishman  with  an  old 
army  musket.  Instead  of  firing  he  lowered  the  muzzle 
and  burst  into  tears,  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  had  con- 
verted him  and  quieted  the  half -crazed  woman,  who  was 
literally  covered  with  an  eruption  of  confluent  smallpox. 
We  dressed  her  and  helped  her  downstairs,  and  amid  the 
jeers  of  the  crowd,  who  were  kept  at  an  unnecessarily 
remote  distance  by  our  guard  of  cautious  policemen,  she 
was  sent  to  the  ferry  and  thence  to  the  Island.  A  month 
after,  the  man,  who  was  not  really  a  bad  sort,  called  upon 

101 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

me  to  give  thanks  for  what  we  had  done,  and  he  admitted 
that  without  the  good  care  she  had  had  she  undoubtedly 
would  have  died. 

Dr.  George  Henry  Fox,  who  is  to-day  one  of  the  lead- 
ing dermatologists  of  the  world,  was  in  1873  a  vaccinator 
in  the  service  of  the  Health  Department.  He  relates  with 
amusement  the  story  of  his  experience  when  he  went  to  a 
squalid  negro  hovel  about  twelve  feet  square,  with  glass- 
less  windows  and  a  rusty  iron  stovepipe,  which  was  the 
only  chimney.  The  broken  door  was  opened  by  a  huge 
negress,  to  whom  he  made  the  usual  polite  offer  of  gratui- 
tous vaccination.  Drawing  herself  up  to  her  full  height, 
she  said,  "No,  sah,  indeed,  no,  sah,  such  mattahs  is  at- 
tended to  by  ouah  family  feesician,"  and  suiting  the  action 
to  the  word,  shut  the  door  in  his  face. 

The  sanitary  condition  of  New  York  was  very  bad  at 
this  time;  we  had  a  cholera  scare  in  the  early  seventies 
which  turned  out  to  be  a  false  alarm,  but  it  is  a  wonder 
there  was  not  more  illness  in  a  region  where  there  was 
no  drainage,  and  only  contaminated  water  and  food; 
where  cases  of  contagious  disease  were  secreted,  and  an 
attempt  to  locate  them  was  met  by  a  vicious  dog  or  even  a 
bullet. 

In  the  lower  part  of  the  city  existed  many  under- 
ground dwellings  which  were  the  abiding  places  of  thieves 
and  low  prostitutes.  The  "Five  Points,"  as  its  name  indi- 
cated, was  a  locality  where  five  streets  met,  and  this  region 
probably  gave  the  Police  and  Health  Departments  more 
concern  than  any  other. 

The  condition  of  Water  Street  was  so  dangerous  and 
unhealthy  that  one  day  Dr.  Stuyvesant  Morris  and  I  were 
directed  to  "take  a  sufficient  force"  and  clear  out  these 
horrid  dens.  We  had  a  dozen  or  more  policemen,  and  a 
gang  of  labourers  when  we  made  our  descent  upon  the 

102 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

underground  human  rat  warren.  There  must  have  been 
three  or  four  stories  of  subterranean  rooms  without  air, 
or  light  except  that  given  by  smoking  kerosene  lamps, 
and  on  each  side  were  rough  bunks  filled  with  drunken 
sailors  and  women,  who  resented  our  entrance  but  were 
afraid  to  resist.  The  walls  were  covered  with  vermin  and 
the  escaping  rats  in  the  lowermost  cellar  plunged  into  the 
stinking  tide  water  that  had  seeped  in  from  the  river,  not 
over  one  hundred  feet  away.  In  a  short  time  the  street 
was  filled  with  blear-eyed  people,  many  of  whom  had 
not  seen  sunlight  for  weeks,  and  the  labourers  destroyed 
and  removed  the  woodwork.  I  was  rather  upset  upon 
this  occasion,  for  when  Dr.  Morris  borrowed  a  police- 
man's club  to  brush  off  some  of  the  vermin  and  cobwebs 
that  clung  to  my  clothes,  he  hit  the  hammer  of  my  re- 
volver, with  the  result  that  there  was  an  explosion,  fol- 
lowed by  the  fall  of  a  policeman  to  the  ground.  The 
ball,  which  luckily  was  a  small  one,  had  gone  through  his 
wrist.  Fortunately  no  worse  consequences  followed  than 
my  arrest,  and  a  disposition  upon  the  part  of  the  man  to 
visit  me  frequently  and  borrow  money. 

In  times  of  peace  the  sensation  of  shooting  some  one 
is  by  no  means  pleasant,  and  this  was  my  second  experi- 
ence, for  at  a  military  school,  as  a  youngster,  I  did  guard 
duty  and  snapped  what  I  supposed  to  be  an  empty  gun 
at  an  intruding  and  very  dirty  boy  who  was  climbing  a 
fence  and  ready  with  stones  to  pelt  me.  Unfortunately  a 
charge  of  small  birdshot  remained  in  the  gun  as  the  result 
of  a  previous  hunting  expedition  of  some  one  who  had 
forgotten  to  remove  it,  and  to  my  horror  the  boy  fell 
shrieking  to  the  ground  while  I  cast  away  my  murderous 
weapon  and  sought  a  refuge  under  my  bed.  My  horrid 
fears  were  exaggerated,  for  I  subsequently  learned  that 
the  shot  had  lodged  in  a  part  of  the  boy's  anatomy  where 

103 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

they  could  be  easily  reached  by  the  family  doctor,  his  only 
inconvenience  being  that  for  some  time  he  could  not  ride 
his  bicycle. 

There  was  a  tendency  with  all  medical  students,  in  my 
young  days,  to  be  on  hand  when  accidents  were  likely  to 
happen,  and  often  in  the  excess  of  youthful  professional 
zeal  I  became  entangled  in  street  rows  and  killings  of 
various  kinds.  As  ambulances  were  then  almost  unknown, 
I  often  acted  the  good  Samaritan,  but  suffered  the  subse- 
quent annoyance  of  subpoenas  from  the  coroner.  In  this 
connection  I  recall  the  Orange,  or,  as  they  were  called, 
Hibernian  riots.  Upon  this  occasion  the  little  band  of 
Protestant  Irishmen,  who  had  been  bullied  unmercifully 
by  the  Roman  Catholics  and  had  not  for  several  years 
dared  parade  on  the  twelfth  of  July,  made  up  their  minds 
they  would  celebrate  the  battle  of  the  Boyne.  This  was 
in  1870,  and  the  public  officials,  including  the  Mayor  and 
Superintendent  of  Police,  who  were  sympathisers  with 
the  Catholics  (then,  as  now,  powerful  in  Tammany  Hall 
and  strong  in  politics),  gave  the  Orangemen  no  encour- 
agement, and  for  a  time  even  the  Governor  of  the  state 
held  aloof.  Finally,  guarded  by  the  84th,  9th  and  6th 
Militia  regiments,  they  left  the  Armoury  at  Eighth  Ave- 
nue and  Twenty-ninth  Street,  and  slowly  marched  down 
Eighth  Avenue  through  a  dense  crowd  of  noisy  antago- 
nists. Meanwhile  my  friend  and  myself  entered  a  hall 
door  of  a  tall  tenement  house  just  above  Twenty-fifth 
Street,  and  went  up  to  the  roof,  where  from  the  edge  we 
had  a  good  view  of  what  was  going  on  below.  Presently 
we  saw  a  puff  of  smoke  and  heard  the  crack  of  a  gun  fired 
from  a  top  window  in  a  house  further  down  the  street, 
which  was  answered  by  a  soldier  in  the  ranks  who  raised 
his  rifle  and  fired,  with  the  result  that  we  saw  a  man  pitch 
out  of  the  window,  turn  a  somersault  or  two  and  fall  into 

104. 


!;=niPIIII:l!l!liy:^!i]« 


THE  ORANGE   RIOTS   OF    1870 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

the  crowd.  Then  there  was  a  fierce  outburst;  stones  and 
sticks  and  pistol  shots  were  fired  at  the  soldiers  and 
Orangemen,  who  responded  with  a  volley  which  swept 
the  sidewalk. 

When  we  reached  Twenty-fifth  Street  the  pavement 
was  littered  with  dead  and  wounded  men.  The  mob  was 
drunk  and  cursed  us,  but  I  harangued  them  and  soon 
commandeered  a  grocer's  wagon,  in  which  the  wounded 
were  placed,  and  their  friends  found  a  rope  and  dragged 
us  all  to  the  Mt.  Sinai  Hospital,  then  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood. 

In  1894  the  Normania,  a  Hamburg-American  ship, 
arrived  in  the  lower  bay,  and  was  compelled  to  anchor  at 
once  and  submit  to  a  rigid  though  ridiculous  quarantine. 
One  or  two  sailors  had  died  of  Asiatic  cholera  just  after 
she  left  Hamburg.  Many  people  in  New  York  were 
beside  themselves  with  apprehension,  and  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  appointed  a  committee  of  doctors,  of  whom 
I  was  one,  to  help  the  health  officer;  but  despite  his 
evident  nervous  demoralisation — for  he  cried  when  I  saw 
him — he  later  regained  his  wits  and  scorned  our  well- 
meant  offers  of  help.  The  unfortunate  passengers  and 
crew,  though  they  did  not  suffer  from  cholera  and  there 
was  no  extension  of  the  scourge,  underwent  many  hard- 
ships, incident  to  their  imprisonment,  first  on  the  Nor- 
mania,  then  on  the  Narragansett  (a  Providence  steam- 
boat anchored  in  the  lower  bay  and  utterly  unfit  for  the 
purpose),  and  later  in  the  big  Surf  Hotel  at  Fire  Island, 
which  had  been  purchased  by  the  politicians  for  a  huge 
sum. 

On  the  steamer,  among  others,  was  E.  L.  Godkin,  Esq., 
Editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post^  who  wrote  daily 
letters  of  protest  to  his  own  and  other  newspapers.  An- 
other passenger  was  "Lottie"  Collins,  the  danseuse  and 

105 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

singer,  and  author  of  that  classic,  Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay. 
It  was  said  that  the  only  "high  kickers"  on  the  Normania 
were  these  two,  and  considering  the  dignity  of  the  former, 
it  was  a  cruel  joke. 

All  the  sanitary  work  was  distasteful  in  the  extreme, 
for  much  of  it  was  outside  of  my  specialty,  and  in  1880 
I  was  glad  to  resign,  and  I  have  since  advised  all  my 
young  professional  friends  to  have  nothing  to  do  with 
medical  work  of  this  kind,  for  not  only  is  its  performance 
in  a  big  city,  and  the  contact  with  politicians,  trying  and 
humiliating,  but  it  dulls  one's  activities  in  other  directions 
and  necessary  study  is  interfered  with.  I  took  it  in  time 
of  stress,  and  to  enable  me  to  master  my  specialty,  fool- 
ishly refusing  an  offer  from  the  late  Dr.  Fordyce  Barker 
to  be  his  assistant.  I  did  a  great  deal  of  hard  work  in 
neurology  and  wrote  three  treatises  before  1880,  during 
my  nine  years  of  slavery.  Then  I  was  able,  after  taking 
a  well-to-do  patient  to  Europe,  to  throw  up  my  billet,  to 
settle  down  and  do  an  enormous  amount  of  hospital  and 
dispensary  work,  to  lecture  and  prepare  papers,  and  to 
make  a  financial  success.  No  longer  would  I  spend  dreary 
days  in  the  tenement  houses,  nor  did  I  cool  my  heels  in 
some  tessellated  hall  of  a  Fifth  Avenue  latter-day  pluto- 
crat, awaiting  her  pleasure. 

I  was  now  my  own  master  in  every  sense,  and  respon- 
sible to  no  one  but  myself.  Soon  after, .my  connection  with 
the  large  Asylum  on  Blackwell's  Island  gave  me  plenty  of 
material  for  study,  although  I  was  in  constant  rebellion 
because  the  dirty  hand  of  politics  had  stretched  out,  put- 
ting in  incompetent  superintendents  and  attendants  and 
even  doctors.  We  had  to  fight  for  medicine  and  supplies, 
and  large  parties  of  sight-seers,  who  were  friends  bf  poli- 
ticians, were  trotted  about  the  wards  to  see  the  poor  pa- 
tients.    The  tri-weekly  visit  implied  an  uncomfortable 

106 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

trip,  sometimes  in  an  open  boat,  and  in  winter  this  was 
exceedingly  disagreeable  because  of  the  quantities  of  float- 
ing ice  in  the  East  River  and  the  intense  cold,  but  in 
summer  it  had  attractions. 

One  of  my  medical  friends  who  had  a  service  on  the 
island  was  the  late  Henry  G.  Piff ard,  a  highly  original 
though  erratic  man,  and  he  thought  it  would  be  a  good 
plan  to  avoid  the  filthy  and  crowded  little  boat,  often 
filled  with  discharged  prisoners  and  loathsome  patients, 
that  plied  between  an  East  Side  dock  and  Charity  Hos- 
pital, and  get  "a  small-sized  launch."  He  selected  it,  and 
we  shared  the  expense.  I  must  say,  novice  as  I  was,  that 
I  looked  upon  this  toy  when  I  first  saw  it  with  some  appre- 
hension, for,  as  every  one  knows,  the  tide  in  this  part  of 
the  East  River  runs  at  the  rate  of  four  to  five  or  six  knots 
an  hour  while  our  launch  could,  with  selected  fuel  and 
great  attention,  do  five,  so  our  experience  was  unusually 
disastrous.  We  often  embarked  at  a  point  a  mile  further 
up  the  river  and  allowed  for  the  tide  to  carry  us  down 
to  the  dock.  When  it  was  flood  we  reversed  the  pro- 
ceeding. One  day,  however,  all  our  plans  went  awry, 
our  fuel  ran  out,  and  after  burning  all  the  loose  or  detach- 
able woodwork,  we  were  rapidly  drifting  down  the  river, 
and  had  it  not  been  for  some  friendly  "dock  rats"  in  a 
rowboat,  I  suppose  would  have  drifted  through  the  har- 
bour and  out  to  sea. 

For  a  long  time  I  was  one  of  the  very  few  neurologists 
in  the  United  States,  there  being  only  three  or  four  in 
New  York,  two  in  Boston,  the  same  number  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  one  in  Chicago,  so  that  we  were  obliged  to  make 
long  journeys  to  meet  other  physicians  in  consultation, 
and  my  own  work  of  this  kind  took  me  as  far  west  as 
Minneapolis  and  even  to  Denver.  I  well  remember  a  trip 
I  made  at  the  request  of  the  elder  Dr.  Palmer  Howard  to 

107 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

meet  him  at  the  bedside  of  the  wife  of  a  prominent  person 
in  Montreal.  A  special  train  consisting  of  an  ordinary 
car  and  an  engine  was  waiting  for  me  at  the  Grand  Central 
depot.  The  first  part  of  the  journey  from  New  York  to 
Albany  consumed  only  three  hours  and  fifteen  minutes, 
an  unheard-of  time  in  the  seventies.  The  conductor  came 
to  me  after  we  reached  Sing-Sing,  apologising  for  not 
going  faster  as  "the  car  was  not  heavy  enough."  He  need 
not  have  reminded  me  of  this,  for  the  run  of  five  miles 
from  Tarrytown  to  Sing-Sing  was  made  in  four  minutes, 
and  it  seemed  as  if  the  flimsy  car  was  off  the  track  most 
of  the  time,  and  we  had  to  hang  onto  our  seats  for  dear 
life.  I  reached  Montreal  about  midnight,  too  late  to  do 
any  good,  but  in  time  to  make  a  diagnosis.  There  was 
something  rather  gruesome  about  this  case,  for  the  lady 
was  the  third  wife  who  had  died  in  exactly  the  same  way 
as  the  others,  and  evidently  from  the  same  condition,  and 
the  husband  was  horrified  by  the  fatality. 

During  my  early  practice  I  saw  much  of  the  old  New 
lYork  society,  in  which  were  many  of  my  patients.  This 
included  the  names  that  one  seldom  hears  nowadays,  and 
its  habitat  was  about  Washington  Square,  lower  Fifth 
Avenue  and  even  St.  John's  Park.  The  latter  square, 
lately  occupied  by  the  ugly  freight  depot  of  the  Hudson 
River  Railroad,  was,  when  I  first  knew  it,  a  lovely,  con- 
servative old  place,  about  which  lived  the  Lydigs,  Coldens, 
and  others,  and  for  many  years,  as  a  boy  and  later,  I 
invariably  ate  my  Christmas  dinner  at  the  old-fashioned 
English  home  of  David  Colden,  a  son  of  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Cadwallader  Colden,  who  was  such  a  figure  in  the 
history  of  the  state  of  New  York.  Another  event  was  my 
Thanksgiving  dinner  taken  yearly  with  Mrs.  John  Jacob 
Astor,  the  mother  of  "Willie"  Astor,  who  has  since  become 
an  English  peer.    At  this  time  he  was  a  taU,  lanky  and 

108 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

most  eccentric  youngster,  a  dilettante  in  sculpture,  having 
studied  in  Rome,  a  producer  of  expensive  editions  de  luxe 
of  his  own  poems,  and  an  amateur  politician.  He  found 
it  difficult  to  impress  the  "rough  and  ordinary  politician," 
and  his  short  public  career  was  so  full  of  surprises  of  a 
kind  that  need  not  be  gone  into,  that  he  was  unkindly  ridi- 
culed in  the  press.  Not  appreciated  in  his  own  country  he 
went  abroad,  and,  I  believe,  has  never  returned.  His 
mother,  who  was  one  of  the  Rhode  Island  Gibbses,  was  a 
sensible,  clever  woman,  doing  much  good  in  ways  of 
charity,  and  was  universally  loved. 

New  York  society  of  the  best  kind  was  exclusive  and 
conservative,  and  something  besides  money  was  then  re- 
quired to  get  a  foothold  in  its  midst.  In  the  early  seven- 
ties the  names  of  De  Peyster,  Livingstone,  Van  Rensse- 
laer, Schuyler,  De  Rham,  Wilkes,  Delano,  Forbes,  Scher- 
merhorn,  Wetmore,  Minturn,  Grinnell,  Winthrop,  King, 
Duer,  Swarthout,  Duncan,  and  Hamilton,  with  a  few  oth- 
ers, were  familiar,  but  from  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
their  ranks  became  thinned  as  people  with  money  came  to 
the  front.  It  was  then  that  successful  business  men,  mer- 
chants and  capitalists  without  family  became  prominent, 
and  the  old  people,  like  those  identified  with  the  Faubourg 
St.  Germain,  sought  their  shells,  or  died  out  in  great 
measure.  Some  of  them  growled  at  the  innovations  of 
the  newcomers. 

I  can  well  remember  being  taken  by  a  student  chum  to 
the  house  of  some  rich  people  of  the  newer  kind,  whose 
name  I  had  not  up  to  this  time  heard.  They  were  a 
rollicking,  good-natured  party  of  several  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, all  jolly  and  fond  of  horseplay.  The  Virginia  reel 
was  a  riotous  performance,  and  it  was  led  by  the  eldest 
son  of  the  house,  who,  I  remember,  wore  a  bright  red  satin 
edging  in  his  dress  waistcoat,  and  every  one  was  pressed 

109 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  "have  a  good  time,"  and  enjoy  the  bountiful  supper 
in  another  room.  I  little  realised  that  these  people  would 
later  become  the  very  leaders  of  the  most  prominent  New 
York  society,  sharing  the  honours  with  the  descendants  of 
the  exploiters  of  the  Comstock  lode  and  various  other  peo- 
ple whose  origin  was  equally  humble,  and  often  obscure, 
but  who  acquired  money  and  everything  it  could  buy,  and 
could  eventually  oust  the  poorer  set.  At  the  time  when  I 
began  practice,  the  so-called  "social  leaders"  of  New  York 
society  were  Mrs.  William  and  Mrs.  John  Jacob  Astor, 
between  whom  there  existed  some  rivalry,  and  there  was 
an  "elegant"  set,  led  by  a  Mrs.  Coventry  Waddell.  The 
literary  and  musical  society  was  headed  by  Professor 
Ogden  Doremus,  the  chemist,  Mrs.  John  Sherwood,  who 
wrote  The  Sarcasm  of  Destiny,  A  Transplanted  Rose,  and 
other  novels,  and  articles  upon  home  decoration,  and  later 
Mrs.  Burton  Harrison,  whose  literary  contributions  in- 
cluded nice  little  stories,  chiefly  of  southern  life,  and 
handbooks  of  etiquette. 

One  could,  in  those  simple  days,  find  much  variety  and 
kind  hospitality,  quite  impossible  in  an  age  when  so-called 
fashionable  society  consists  largely  of  a  maelstrom  of  vul- 
gar frivolity,  artificiality  and  extravagance,  and  all  the 
worst  things  of  European  life  that  have  been  copied  and 
adopted.  There  are  no  lines  drawn;  the  undesirable  rich 
Semitic  influence  is  everywhere;  and  money,  no  matter 
how  obtained,  figures  largely  in  determining  a  standard. 
This  may  be  only  the  expression  of  a  cycle  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  this  is  so. 

Professional  fees  in  my  early  days  were  nothing  to  what 
they  are  to-day,  except  in  the  matter  of  expert  work  in 
Court,  which  was  better  paid  for.  There  was  less  compe- 
tition— and  the  rank  and  file  of  my  profession  were  gen- 
erously  compensated,   although   they   did   an   enormous 

110 


EARLY  STRUGGLES 

amount  of  work  for  nothing,  especially  at  the  dispen- 
saries, where  the  patients  generally  deceived  the  doctors 
as  to  their  means.  It  was  not  unusual  to  find  in  the  wait- 
ing room  a  prosperous-looking  fat  woman  in  sealskin  cloak 
and  diamonds,  who  always  had  the  effrontery  to  tell  the 
common  story  of  destitution. 

Some  surgeons,  like  Sands,  Bull  and  McBurney,  re- 
ceived great  sums,  and  in  the  beginning  the  operation  for 
appendicitis,  which  is  now  performed  by  almost  any  coun- 
try doctor,  brought  a  fee  of  from  $1,000  to  $10,000.  Dr. 
L.  was  called  to  Chicago,  receiving  $5,000  for  an  ordinary 
medical  consultation,  and  Dr.  H.  charged  staggering  sums 
for  "tapping  the  liver."  A  man  who  then  suggested 
"splitting  fees" — that  is  to  say,  taking  a  share  of  the  spe- 
cialist's fee — would  have  been  drummed  out  of  the  pro- 
fession, and  the  ethics  of  medicine  were  very  strict. 

All  medical  men  have  curious  experiences  in  money 
matters.  In  the  country  the  honorarium  often  takes  the 
form  of  a  barrel  of  potatoes  or  a  fat  shoat,  but  the  farmer 
pays — cash  when  he  can.  One  must  be  prepared  for  all 
sorts  of  things  in  the  city.  Some  years  ago  a  prosperous 
Hebrew  came  to  me  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  large 
family  of  children,  with  a  letter  from  his  local  Chicago 
doctor.  After  taking  two  hours  of  my  time,  and  subse- 
quently asking  me  to  examine  and  express  an  opinion  on 
the  health  of  his  wife  and  progeny  each  in  turn,  he  asked 
my  fee,  which  I  told  him  was  twenty  dollars.  Then,  after 
perturbed  surprise,  and  an  ineffective  attempt  to  mar- 
chande,  he  pulled  out  a  canvas  bag  and  counted  out  twenty 
trade  dollars  (this  coin  was  then  worth  only  seventy 
cents!),  his  face  bearing  an  expression  of  resigned 
martyrdom. 


Ill 


CHAPTER   VIII 

NEWSPAPER   WORK 

I  Become  a  Dramatic  Critic — E.  L.  Godkin  and  the  Evening  Post — 
Joseph  Bucklin  Bishop — A  Disgusted  Reporter — Cable  Service 
in  the  Early  Days — The  Trouble  with  Chile — Bob  Evans'  Plan 
for  Ramming  the  Chilean  Navy — The  New  York  Sun  and  World 
— Albert  Pulitzer  Starts  the  "Yellows" — Offensive  Interviewer 
— Contempt  of  Court — The  Society  Newspapers — Vanity  Fair 
and  Its  Staff — Libel  Actions. 

During  my  early  professional  life  some  of  the  time 
was  given  to  newspaper  work,  for  I  have  always  had  a 
mild  cacoathes  scribendi^  and  have  contributed  extensively 
not  only  to  the  daily  press,  but  to  magazines  and  other 
periodicals  as  well.  In  this  way  I  have  come  in  contact 
with  many  journalists,  all  excellent  fellows,  some  of  whom 
have  since  become  great  friends.  At  one  time  there  was  a 
newspaper  edited  by  Nym  Crinkle ^  otherwise  A.  C. 
Wheeler,  who  was  a  caustic  and  in  a  superficial  way  a 
brilliant  dramatic  writer,  and  very  fond  of  feuilletons. 
He  was  attached  to  the  Worlds  and  afterward  became 
managing  editor  of  the  New  York  Star,  a  paper  owned 
by  one  Dorsheimer,  for  a  time  a  state  official.  At  his 
invitation  I  wrote  weekly  articles  upon  dramatic  subjects, 
all  rather  pedantic  and  ponderous,  I  fear,  and  quite  un- 
original. They,  however,  seemed  to  please  the  owner  of 
the  paper  as  well  as  the  editor,  and  as  the  regular  musical 
and  dramatic  critic,  one  Townsend  Percy,  had  severed  his 
connection  with  the  Star,  I  was  offered  the  position,  which 

112 


NEWSPAPER  WORK 

I  gladly  took,  as  I  was  having  rather  a  hard  time.  I  had 
always  supposed  the  duties  of  this  important  journalistic 
position  were  confined  only  to  criticism,  and  when  I  was 
sent  by  the  managing  editor  to  interview  the  keeper  of  a 
rather  low  variety  theatre  as  to  why  he  had  not  given  the 
paper  his  share  of  advertising,  and  to  urge  him  in  one 
way  or  another  to  do  so,  I  naturally  rebelled. 

My  first  week's  work  consisted  in  "covering"  the  Italian 
opera,  and  a  large  bundle  of  tickets  for  the  seven  per- 
formances was  placed  in  my  hands.  I  quite  conscien- 
tiously attended  every  performance,  but  my  misery  was 
great,  as  my  little  boy  was  taken  down  with  scarlet  fever, 
and  I  hated  to  leave  him  to  the  care  of  others.  Besides 
all  this  I  was  exhausted  by  the  hard  work  of  the  day,  which 
included  my  duties  in  the  Health  Department.  There 
were  minor  reasons  which  prevailed,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
week  I  drew  my  twenty  dollars  and  resigned. 

Many  young  men  were  anxious  at  this  time,  as  they  now 
are,  to  become  journalists,  and  they  were  usually  told 
that  the  only  way  to  succeed  was  to  begin  "at  the  bottom 
of  the  ladder"  and  to  do  reporting.  One  of  my  friends,  a 
talented  young  lawyer,  went  to  the  editor  of  one  of  the 
morning  papers  to  get  employment  of  this  kind.  He  was 
fond  of  gaiety  and  knew  nearly  every  one  in  New  York 
society.  His  first  experience  was  his  last,  for  he  was  as- 
signed to  go  up  town  and  interview  a  man  who  had  regis- 
tered under  an  assumed  name  at  a  hotel,  to  escape  service 
from  his  wife,  who  was  seeking  a  divorce.  As  the  lady 
happened  to  be  his  own  wife's  sister,  the  situation  was 
embarrassing,  to  say  the  least. 

The  Star,  like  other  papers,  depended  for  much  of  its 
European  news  upon  the  fertility  of  imagination  of  a 
Cable  Editor,  who  received  a  message  in  code  and  padded 
it  out  so  that  the  result  was  a  magnificent  concoction,  most 

113 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

of  which  had  Httle  or  no  basis.  Even  then  cable  and  tele- 
graph rates  were  enormously  high,  and  ten  years  before 
they  were  almost  prohibitive.  In  the  year  from  1866-1867 
the  rate  from  Valentia  Bay  to  New  York  was  $2.90  per 
word  in  gold,  but  it  was  the  habit  of  several  New  York 
newspapers  to  divide  up  the  cost  so  that  it  did  not  fall  too 
heavily.  It  is  said  that  the  King  of  Prussia's  Peace 
Speech,  cabled  to  the  New  York  Herald^  which  in  con- 
densed form  consisted  of  1010  words,  cost,  at  the  old  rate 
of  five  dollars  a  word,  $5,083,  or  about  $7,100  in  green- 
backs. 

To  give  an  idea  of  domestic  rates,  the  following  table, 
given  by  a  contemporary  writer,  may  be  detailed : 

From  First  10  words     Per  word  after 

New  Orleans  to  New  York .  .  .  $3.25  .23 

Washington  to  New  York....  .50  .05 

St.  Louis  to  New  York 2.55  .17 

Chicago  to  New  York 2.05  .14" 

San  Francisco  to  New  York.  .  7.45  .57 

Boston  to  New  York .30  .03 

Albany  to  New  York .55  .04 

Montreal  to  New  York 1.20  .07 

Quebec 1.82  .12 

The  cost  of  one  special  despatch  to  the  Herald  was 
$132.50. 

Some  medical  men  I  knew  graduated  from  the  daily 
papers,  one  of  these  being  the  late  Dr.  George  L.  Shrady, 
who  for  years  had  been  on  the  staff  of  the  Tribune.  He 
afterward  became  editor  of  the  Medical  Record,  and  was 
an  excellent  surgeon.  He  it  was  who  operated  upon 
General  Grant,  and  the  scalpel  with  which  the  operation 
was  performed  occupied  a  conspicuous  place  in  a  little 
glass  case  on  his  mantelpiece. 

114 


NEWSPAPER  WORK 

One  of  my  friends  was  E.  L.  Godkin,  the  editor  of  the 
Evening  Post,  with  whom  I  made  a  dehghtful  voyage  to 
Europe.  The  Post  had  been  founded  in  1801  by  my 
grandfather  and  others,  and  has  always  been  a  powerful 
organ  for  the  correction  of  corruption  and  public  wrongs. 
The  original  editor  was  one  William  Coleman,  who  had 
fought  one  or  more  duels.  Mr.  Godkin's  predecessors  were 
John  Bigelow,  formerly  Minister  to  France,  Carl  Schurz 
and  Horace  White.  Godkin,  who  founded  the  Nation, 
a  journal  of  the  highest  standing,  was  invited  to  head  the 
staff  of  the  Post,  which  he  did  most  efficiently.  And 
Diblee  in  his  book  said  of  him :  "Another  successful  Irish- 
man, Godkin,  became  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  in 
America.  No  one  exceeded  him  in  the  courage  with  which 
he  attacked  knavery  and  jobbery  of  all  kinds,  not  occa- 
sionally, but  steadily  day  by  day," 

This  really  explains  the  great  work  done  by  the  Post, 
for  its  editor  believed  in  the  efficacy  of  constant  and  re- 
peated attacks  and  the  power  of  moral  suggestion;  for 
this  reason  he  was  hated  by  evil  doers,  especially  in  New 
York.  In  1883  my  friend  Joseph  Bucklin  Bishop,  who 
had  served  his  apprenticeship  on  the  Tribune,  and  who  has 
much  caustic  wit,  became  Mr.  Godkin's  able  assistant,  and 
wrote  many  of  the  most  brilliant  editorials. 

In  1891  the  country  was  stirred  by  the  possibility  of  war 
with  Chile,  and  Don  Ricardo  Trumbull  coming  with  letters 
to  the  Post,  I  saw  much  of  him  through  Mr.  Godkin's 
son  Lawrence,  also  an  intimate  friend.  I  then  had  rooms 
in  Sixteenth  Street,  and  Godkin,  who  was  to  dine  with 
me,  proposed  that  he  should  bring  a  friend,  who  might 
have  to  leave  us  rather  suddenly  during  the  evening.  Be- 
fore sitting  down,  our  guest  asked  that  if  any  wire  came 
the  servant  should  give  it  to  him  at  once,  and  at  eleven  a 
boy  placed  a  telegram  in  his  hands,  which  he  tore  open 

115 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

with  some  eagerness.  It  was  a  message  from  the  Chilean 
Minister  in  Washington,  containing  the  decision  of  Mr. 
Blaine,  then  Secretary  of  State,  who  finally  made  the 
concessions  that  would  obviate  war.  Had  the  contents 
of  the  message  been  of  a  different  kind,  Mr.  Trumbull 
was  ready  to  leave  us  at  midnight,  board  the  French 
steamer,  and  proceed  to  Toulon,  where  he  was  to  take 
command  of  a  Chilean  man  of  war.  Happily  no  such  dis- 
agreeable ending  of  our  dinner  occurred.  We  became 
great  friends,  the  more  so  because  his  ancestor,  Jonathan 
Trumbull,  and  my  own  grandfather  fought  side  by  side 
in  the  American  Revolution. 

The  imminence  of  the  quarrel  with  Chile  assumed  such 
proportions  that  Admiral,  then  Captain,  "Bob"  Evans 
embarked  in  the  little  gunboat  Yorhtown  for  the  harbour 
of  Valparaiso,  where,  with  others,  he  was  to  rescue  Ameri- 
cans and  beard  the  Chilean  navy,  which  was  then  of  rela- 
tively considerable  importance.  Evans  admitted  that  he 
did  not  look  forward  to  his  task  with  keen  anticipation, 
but  ever  resourceful,  he  told  me  that  he  had  decided,  if  it 
came  to  action,  to  fill  his  forward  compartment  with  gun 
cotton  and  high  explosives  and  "ram  the  biggest  and 
nearest  ship  like  Hell!" 

I  have  reason  to  believe  that  many  efforts  were  made  by 
certain  low  but  powerful  politicians  to  interfere  with  the 
publication  of  the  Post  at  different  times.  I  knew  of  one 
occasion  where  the  compositors  went  on  a  strike,  and  prac- 
tically terrorised  every  one.  During  this  time,  while  Mr. 
Godkin  was  quietly  sitting  in  his  room,  the  gigantic  fore- 
man truculently  stalked  through  the  editorial  offices,  but 
attempted  no  violence.  Mr.  Godkin  turned  to  one  of  his 
associates  and  said,  "Well,  I  hope  any  way  that  he  ap- 
proves of  the  editorial  policy  of  our  paper." 

Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  independence  of  the 

116 


NEWSPAPER  WOKK 

New  York  Sun,  which  first  appeared  in  1833  and  in  its 
way  was  as  valuable  a  regulator  of  decent  public  opinion 
under  the  editorial  control  of  my  friend  the  late  Charles 
A.  Dana  and  his  able  and  original  assistant,  Edward  P. 
Mitchell,  as  was  the  Post;  although  the  two  journals  did 
not  exactly  resemble  each  other.  One  sarcastic  and  ill- 
natured  critic  said  that  this  difference  consisted  in  the 
fact  that  "the  Sun  made  vice  attractive  and  the  Post  made 
virtue  offensive,"  which  was  funny  but  not  exactly  true, 
Dana,  like  Henry  Watterson,  was  severe,  if  not  bitter,  in 
his  attacks,  and  never  forgot  a  personal  wrong  or  affront. 
For  this  reason  his  reiterated  abuse  and  ridicule  have  well- 
nigh  ruined,  or  at  least  made  very  uncomfortable,  many  a 
victim. 

In  1883  Joseph  Pulitzer,  a  Hungarian,  who  had  by  his 
own  exertions  risen  from  abject  poverty  to  financial  ease, 
and  who  owned  a  St,  Louis  newspaper,  came  to  New  York 
and  bought  the  New  York  World  from  Jay  Gould.  This 
paper,  under  his  management,  became  the  first  so-called 
"yellow"  journal,  because  of  its  extreme  sensationalism, 
and  the  freedom  with  which  it  exploited  the  private  affairs 
of  many  people.  Under  its  previous  editors,  W.  H.  Hurl- 
burt  and  Manton  Marble,  it  was  a  rather  ordinary  but 
well-conducted  journal,  with  literary  pretensions,  and 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Democratic  party;  but 
owing  to  Pulitzer's  revolutionary  methods,  it  became  the 
most  prosperous  paper  in  America,  and  its  composition 
and  paper  bills  were  the  largest  of  all,  not  excepting  the 
New  York  Herald. 

Within  a  short  time  Albert  Pulitzer,  a  younger  brother 
of  Joseph,  came  to  New  York  and  obtained  employment 
as  a  reporter  upon  the  New  York  Herald.  His  insistent 
and  pushing  manner,  and  peculiar  personality,  made  him 
a  success  as  an  interviewer,  and  he  could  get  access  to  his 

117 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

victims  when  others  failed.  It  is  even  related  that  a  cele- 
brated interview  with  Mayor  Oakey  Hall  was  obtained 
upon  an  occasion  when  the  latter  was  in  a  position  where 
he  could  not  help  himself,  and  in  a  place  from  which  he 
could  not  emerge  to  elude  his  pursuer. 

I  met  Albert  Pulitzer  when  he  was  my  only  fellow 
passenger  on  the  JLessing,  a  little  Hamburg- American 
steamer,  and  heard  much  from  him  as  to  his  future  plans. 
He  had  then  bought  the  Morning  Journal,  and  started 
to  make  it  an  offensive,  sensational  paper.  He  was  abso- 
lutely frank  in  his  avowal  of  his  policy  of  a  "free  lance," 
and  believed  that  "a  journal  enterprisingly  conducted 
could  succeed  without  the  aid  of  its  advertisements,"  but 
he  did  not  deign  to  go  into  further  particulars.  He  after- 
ward made  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  spent  it  like  water, 
wining  and  dining  notable  people  in  London  and  else- 
where, with  whom  he  sought  to  ingratiate  himself;  and  I 
am  told  that  he  always  went  abroad  with  a  secretary  or 
two,  not  only  taking  the  best  stateroom  for  himself,  but 
two  on  either  side  "to  insure  privacy,"  travelling  with 
couriers  and  valets,  and  dressing  most  expensively  and 
showily. 

I,  like  many  other  public  men,  have  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  interviewers,  although  as  a  rule  my  treatment  has 
been  most  courteous  and  fair.  On  many  occasions  re- 
porters who  have  asked  for  a  "story"  have,  I  think,  found 
me  obliging  if  I  could  help  them  over  a  rough  place,  but 
occasionally  I  would  be  asked  to  give  professional  opinions 
upon  strange  subjects.  A  woman  representative  of  the 
Evening  Mail  once  called  me  on  the  telephone  to  ask 
"Why  women  snuggle  so?"  I  learned  before  she  had  fin- 
ished that  the  word  really  was  "smuggle,"  and  as  I  could 
throw  no  light  upon  the  subject,  I  refused  to  be  inter- 
viewed.   The  importunities  of  newspapers  are  sometimes 

1118 


AN    INSTRUMENT    OF    TORTURE 


NEWSPAPER  WORK 

remarkable,  and  I  have,  in  my  country  home,  been 
dragged  out  of  bed  late  at  night  to  answer  a  telephone 
inquiry  of  no  interest  whatever  to  any  one,  perhaps  only 
a  piece  of  gossip. 

There  is  a  certain  class  of  reporters  who  draw  upon 
their  imaginations  for  material.  The  late  John  Paul 
Bocock,  who  was  an  energetic  journalist,  never  failed  to 
preface  his  article  with  a  redundant  account  of  my  house, 
my  personal  appearance,  and  many  other  things  doubtless 
highly  complimentary,  but  not  always  true,  and  of  no 
interest  to  any  one. 

When  I  appeared  as  an  expert  for  the  people  in  the 
Terranova  case,  the  prisoner  being  a  young  girl  who  had 
murdered  her  step-father,  I  made  some  physical  tests  of 
the  defendant,  of  the  most  ordinary  kind,  among  them 
those  for  the  determination  of  sensation.  None  of  these 
were  more  painful  than  the  use  of  a  pinprick.  When 
some  one  called  my  attention  to  the  New  York  American 
I  found  a  blood-curdling  account  of  torture  inflicted  by 
dropping  heavy  stones,  or  steel  points  attached  to  heavy 
granite  weights,  upon  the  feet  and  toes  of  the  victim,  and 
the  picture  which  was  printed  is  reproduced.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  all  of  this  account  was  the  purest 
invention. 

The  sensationalism  of  that  part  of  the  daily  press  which 
flourished  upon  the  pleasure  that  many  people  derive  from 
perusing  an  account  of  the  misfortunes  and  weaknesses  of 
others,  became  general  about  this  time,  and  has  had  much 
to  do  with  debasing  public  opinion.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore some  London  papers  took  their  cue  from  those  in 
New  York,  but  the  English  law  of  libel  is  so  strict  that 
they  did  not  commit  the  journalistic  excesses  permitted  in 
the  United  States.  One  newspaper  had  imported  an 
offensive  little  reporter  who  had  been  formerly  attached 

,119 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  the  New  York  World,  and  before  the  trial  of  a  cele- 
brated murder  case  in  London,  had  written  an  article 
freely  commenting  upon  the  proposed  defence,  as  well  as 
on  the  plans  of  the  prosecution.  The  result  was  that  he 
was  brought  before  Chief  Justice  Alverston  and  received 
a  severe  reprimand.  In  the  Terranova  case  my  friend. 
Judge  Francis  M.  Scott,  who  presided,  rebuked  the  pa- 
pers for  their  improper  comments  upon  the  case  during 
its  trial,  but  this  kind  of  judicial  correction  is  exceptional 
in  the  United  States. 

There  are  many  actions  for  libel  brought  in  the  English 
courts  as  the  result  of  the  activities  of  a  certain  class  of 
"society  journals,"  and  despite  the  heavy  damages  ac- 
corded the  plaintiffs,  it  is  strange  that  the  papers  persist 
as  they  do,  for  they  transgress  again  immediately.  The 
only  conclusion  is  that  their  gross  earnings  are  so  enor- 
mous that  the  damages  awarded  can  be  charged  to  "profit 
and  loss"  without  inconvenience.  Numerous  attempts 
have  been  made  in  this  country  to  start  these  vile  sheets, 
but  as  a  rule  after  the  appearance  of.  a  few  numbers  they 
have  languished  and  died.  One  or  two  have  nevertheless 
survived,  and  have  done  a  great  deal  of  mischief. 

As  an  instance  of  this,  I  may  refer  to  an  exceptionally 
venomous  attack  which  led  to  lamentable  consequences. 
The  case  fell  under  my  professional  notice,  and  had  to  do 
with  an  elderly  lady  of  the  highest  social  position  whose 
early  life,  so  far  as  any  one  knew,  was  irreproachable. 
She  lived  with  her  sons  and  grandchildren  during  the  sut  i- 
mer  by  the  seaside,  and  one  evening  while  alone  she 
glanced  over  this  sheet,  carelessly  brought  down  by  her 
son.  There  stared  her  in  the  face  a  vile  personal  attack, 
covertly  veiled,  referring  to  some  scandal  of  her  early  mar- 
ried life.  Without  attracting  notice,  she  quietly  walked 
from  the  room  out  into  the  bay,  and  her  body  was  found 

120 


a. 


A  CIVIL  WAR  CARICATURE  BY  LOUIS  MC  LANE 
HAMILTON 

VUXGAR  AND  SATIRICAL  YouTH :  No,  sir-re; 
you  can't  put  on  any  more  of  yer  airs.  It  was 
all  very  well  when  yer  was  a  crisis,  but  now 
yer  ain't  nothin'  but  a  counterband— and  nig- 
gers ain't  better  than  anybody  else 


NEWSPAPEH  WORK 

the  next  day.  Possibly  this  desperate  thing  would  not 
have  occurred  had  she  not  been  a  nervous  invalid,  but  there 
was  sufficient  cause  in  the  cruel  gossip. 

The  difficulty  of  obtaining  punishment  for  libel  in  this 
country  is  indeed  great,  for  the  so-called  freedom  of  the 
press  carries  with  it  a  license  to  attack  not  only  private 
citizens  but  public  officers  with  impunity.  I  had  many 
years  ago  one  such  experience,  when  Judge  Donahue  of 
the  New  York  Superior  Court  held  that  an  untrue  and 
vicious  attack  upon  an  official  constituted  a  libel.  At  the 
time  I  was  connected  with  the  Health  Department,  and 
made  a  report  upon  the  merits  of  asphalt  for  street  pave- 
ments. A  property  owner,  the  late  Amos  F.  Eno,  sent  a 
virulent  letter  to  the  Tribune  accusing  me  of  venality. 
In  vain  did  I  try  to  get  a  retraction,  and  my  friend  John 
Hay,  then  an  editor  of  the  paper,  endeavoured  to  get 
Whitelaw  Reid  to  make  some  disavowal,  for  I  did  not  care 
for  a  lawsuit.  The  answer  was  the  statement  that  "the 
letter  had  been  written  by  a  well-known  gentleman  on  the 
Avenue  and  it  was  probably  true."  Eno  was  served  the 
next  day  with  papers  by  my  lawyer,  the  doughty  General 
Francis  Barlow;  the  case  was  tried  and  I  received  a  hand- 
some verdict.  It  is  estimated  that  Eno's  folly  in  appeal- 
ing the  case  twice,  and  his  counsel  fees,  cost  him  nearly 
$10,000, 

I  knew  of  another  occasion  when  a  vile  libel  appeared 
in  a  sensational  journal,  for  which  the  editor  was 
promptly  arrested.  The  case  never  came  to  trial  for  the 
reason  that  the  District  Attorney  of  that  time  was  heavily 
in  debt  to  one  of  the  owners  of  the  paper — a  stock  broker 
— and  did  not  dare  make  a  move.  The  then  Chief  of 
Police  begged  for  clemency  for  the  editor:  he  too  had 
been  speculating  in  the  same  office,  and  was  heavily  behind- 
hand in  the  matter  of  margin. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

One  of  the  early  comic  papers  in  New  York  was  Vanity 
Fair  J  which  was  intended  to  be  an  American  Punch.  It 
was  certainly  ahead  of  the  vulgar  sheet  called  Yankee 
Notions,  which  owed  its  existence  to  the  caricatures  of 
Frank  Bellew,  all  much  alike  and  very  silly.  During  its 
brief  existence  it  included  in  its  list  of  contributors  a  num- 
ber of  brilliant  men  who  met  at  PfafF's,  a  Bohemian  beer 
cellar  on  lower  Broadway,  but  the  best  of  them  went  off 
to  the  war. 

The  staff  included  W.  H.  Shannon,  E.  C.  Stedman, 
the  poet;  "Artemas  Ward,"  H.  L.  Stephens,  Edward 
Mullen,  McLeUan,  Kemble,  Elihu  Vedder  and  FitzJames 
O'Brien,  who  produced  The  Diamond  Lens  and  The  Sew- 
ing Bird,  and  was  perhaps  Poe's  equal  in  fanciful  writing. 
He  joined  the  Seventh  Regiment  and  died  from  tetanus, 
the  result  of  an  infected  wound,  April  16th,  1862.  Most 
of  these  men  were  friends  of  my  brother  (who  contributed 
caricatures),  and  I  met  them  through  him.  The  office  of 
Vanity  Fair  was  at  113  Nassau  Street,  where,  following 
the  example  of  the  contributors  to  London  Punch,  they 
had  a  meeting  every  Friday  afternoon. 


im 


CHAPTER   IX 

NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

Old  Recollections — Wallack's,  Burton's — Winter  Garden — John  Broug- 
ham as  Pocahontas — M.  W.  Leffingwell — George  L.  Fox  as  Ham- 
let— Stuart  Robson  as  Captain  Crosstree — The  Black  Crook — 
Bonfanti  and  the  Rigl  Sisters — Adeline  Genee — Lydia  Thompson 
and  Her  British  Blondes — Richard  Grant  White  Writes  Sonnets 
to  Pauline  Markham — Sothern  as  Dundreary — Insane  Actors — 
John  McCullough — The  Ravels — Old  Negro  Minstrels,  George 
Christy  and  Dan  Bryant — Gilbert  and  Sullivan — Alfred  Cellier 
Writes  a  Full  Orchestra  Score  in  Twelve  Hours — W.  S.  Gilbert — 
Barnum  and  Bailey's  Circus  on  Blizzard  Night — The  Count 
Johannes — Josef  Hofmann  the  Boy  Pianist — Artemas  Ward — 
Mrs.  Scott  Siddons. 

My  recollections  of  the  theatre,  which  extend  back 
nearly  sixty  years,  are  filled  with  intense  pleasure,  not  only 
because  they  date  from  a  time  when  the  legitimate  stage 
was  in  full  vigour,  but  that  I  have  seen  and  known  some  of 
the  great  actors  and  actresses  who  flourished  during  the 
middle  and  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

For  years  one  could  enjoy  the  productions  of  such  great 
stock  companies  as  that  of  Wallack's,  and  see  and  hear  the 
old  comedies  well  acted  by  such  people  as  the  elder  and 
younger  Wallack,  E.  L.  Davenport,  John  Gilbert,  George 
Holland,  J.  H.  Stoddard,  Madeline  Henriques,  Mrs. 
John  Hoey,  Mary  Gannon,  Mrs.  Vernon,  and  many  oth- 
ers, including  the  well-drilled  and  capable  Daly  Company. 
Never  in  the  United  States  have  there  been  such  presenta- 
tions of  the  School  for  Scandal,  She  Stoops  to  Conquer, 

123 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

The  Rivals  and  the  other  sterling  old  standard  comedies ; 
and  Shakespeare  was  then  played  by  American  actors  as 
it  never  has  been  since  the  days  of  Kean,  McCready  and 
our  own  Edwin  Booth,  while  in  contrast  was  the  noble 
work  of  Salvini  and  Fechter,  and  later  Henry  Irving.  All 
this  was  long  before  the  advent  of  the  trashy,  salacious 
productions  and  adaptations  of  the  last  twenty  years  for 
which  the  Jewish  managers  are  chiefly  responsible.  My 
first  remembrance  of  New  York  theatricals  goes  back  to 
the  time  of  unctuous  Burton  who  then  played  Poor  Pilli- 
coddy.  Boh  Acres,  and  many  delightful  farces  and  com- 
edies at  the  old  Burton's  Theatre,  afterwards  known  as  the 
Winter  Garden,  opposite  Bond  Street  in  Broadway. 
Earlier  still,  the  "lecture  room"  performances  at  Bar- 
num's  Museum  claimed  me  when  I  must  have  been  only 
eight  or  ten  years  of  age.  I  remember  vividly  John 
Brougham  in  Pocahontas j,  an  inimitable  bit  of  burlesque 
with  a  really  good  book.  John  Brougham  played  this  and 
other  burlesques  as  late  as  1876,  and  in  1869  he  produced 
Much  Ado  About  a  Merchant  of  Venice  at  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Street  Theatre.  At  this  performance  he  played 
Shyloch,  Effie  Germon,  afterward  with  Lester  Wallack, 
the  part  of  Lorenzo,  and  the  strenuous  Mrs.  J.  J.  Prior 
that  of  Portia.  Myron  W.  Leffingwell  was  the  droll  orig- 
inal of  Romeo  Jaffer  Jenkins,  and  had  more  real  humour 
than  any  of  his  successors,  even  including  Jacques  Kruger, 
He  too  played  Shylock  in  a  burlesque,  with  the  vivacious 
and  exceedingly  pretty  Lina  Edwin.  On  one  occasion  he 
was  made  up  as  Beppo  the  Gladiator,  after  Edwin  For- 
rest, and  strutted  about  the  stage  apparently  unconscious . 
of  the  large  carving  fork,  one  prong  of  which  was  buried 
in  his  immense  calf,  which  was  stuffed  with  sawdust.  In 
John  Brougham's  cast  was  Miss  Hodson,  who  afterward 
married  the  English  editor  Henry  Labouchere,  whom  I 

124} 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

met  in  London  at  an  "At  Home"  at  the  house  of  T.  P. 
O'Connor  many  years  after. 

His  original  advertisement  of  Pocahontas  is  worthy  of 
reproduction : 

"Original,  Aboriginal,  Erratic,  Operatic,  Semi-Civilised  and 
Demi-Savage  Extravaganza  of  Pocahontas. 

"Scenery  painted  from  Daguerreotypes  and  other  authentic 
documents,  the  costumes  from  original  plates,  and  the  music  was 
dislocated  and  reset  by  the  heads  of  the  different  departments 
of  the  theatre." 

No  more  delightful  farceur  has  ever  appeared  than 
George  L.  Fox,  who,  originally  a  clown,  played  Humpty 
Dumpty  with  his  brother  C.  K.  Fox,  an  admirable 
Pantaloon^  fifteen  hundred  times  in  New  York  alone. 
Fox  was  an  intelligent  man  and  a  scholar  as  well  as  a 
sterling  actor  for  his  rendition  of  Bottom  in  A  Midsum- 
mer Nighfs  Dream  was  a  finished  production.  It  was  a 
burlesque  of  Hamlet^,  however,  which  made  all  New  York 
flock  to  the  theatre  again  and  again  and  to  give  them- 
selves up  to  unrestrained  enjoyment  and  laughter.  This 
was  written  for  him  by  T.  C.  DeLeon  of  New  Orleans, 
and  was  a  witty  and  bright  travesty.  Fox  played  the  part 
with  all  seriousness,  introducing  his  own  funny  business. 
For  instance  when  he  appeared  on  the  ramparts  of  the 
Castle  of  Elsinore,  and  Horatio  referred  in  his  lines  to  the 
"nipping  and  eager  air"  Fox  was  supplied  with  ear-muffs 
and  arctics,  and  beat  his  chest  with  his  mittened  hands. 
When  adjured  by  the  ghost  to  curse  his  uncle,  he  feebly 
and  softly  said  "damn."  Ophelia  was  told  to  get  herself 
to  a  brewery  instead  of  a  nunnery,  and  he  made  a  dread- 
ful face,  holding  his  nose  and  sniffing,  when,  after  exam- 
ining the  skull  of  Yorick  with  its  evident  post-mortem 
offensiveness,  he  hurled  it  away  from  him.    The  play  was 

125 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

produced  at  the  Olympic  Theatre  in  February,  1876,  and 
had  a  long  run. 

James  Lewis,  who  was  one  of  Augustin  Daly's  best 
actors  in  later  days,  figured  at  an  earlier  period  in  bur- 
lesque, and  I  remember  him  in  the  title  role  of  Ltucrezia 
Borgia  at  Elise  Holt's  Theatre  which  was  at  720  Broad- 
way. The  Palace  of  the  Borgias  was  set  like  a  modern 
drug  store  and  Lewis  was  a  quack  doctress. 

Another  amusing  burlesque  was  that  of  Black-Eyed 
Susan  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Theatre  in  1869  when  Stuart 
Robson,  who  afterwards  appeared  as  Bertie  in  The  Hen- 
rietta, played  Captain  Crosstree.  He  was  dressed  in  a 
blue  satin  uniform  which  was  inflated  by  an  enormous  rub- 
ber bag  beneath.  The  spectacle  of  this  huge  creature 
floating  or  skipping  about  the  stage  delivering  his  amorous 
lines  in  a  high,  squeaky  voice  was  ludicrous  in  the  extreme. 

It  was  Augustin  Daly  who  translated  and  "adapted" 
several  German  farces  and  light  comedies.  While  as  a 
rule  they  were  very  amusing  and  well  done  they  exhaled 
the  atmosphere  of  a  certain  shoddy  society  which  was 
made  oiFensive  by  the  antics  and  dress  of  several  male 
members  of  the  company  who  had  probably  never  off  the 
stage  worn  evening  dress.  One  jeune  premier,  following 
the  mode  of  the  lower  East  side,  wore  upon  his  wide  and 
very  glossy  shirt-bosom  a  Roman  cross  made  with  dia- 
monds, and  another  had  gigantic  detachable  shirt  cuffs 
which  he  took  pains  to  display  suddenly  by  a  peculiar  mo- 
tion of  his  forearms,  this  feat  of  gymnastics  gaining  for 
him  the  sobriquet  of  "the  cufF  shooter." 

It  was  here  that  John  Drew  did  a  great  deal  of  hard 
work  for  so  many  years,  and  became  the  ideal  "matinee 
idol,"  although  I  am  sure  he  was  disgusted  with  the  kit- 
tenish worship  of  the  school  girl  and  the  neurotic  women 
of  romantic  mould. 

1^6 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

The  renaissance  of  the  ballet  is  familiar  to  most  old 
New  Yorkers  who  remember  the  excitement  caused  by  the 
opening  of  the  Black  Crook  at  Niblo's  Garden  by  Messrs. 
Jarret  and  Palmer.  This  spectacle  had  been  produced  in 
Paris  as  the  BicTie  au  Bois,  and  even  though  toned  down 
for  American  taste,  created  a  tremendous  sensation,  as  the 
dress — or  rather  undress — of  the  coryphees  shocked  the 
public  and  called  forth  a  storm  of  remonstrance,  and  pre- 
paredness at  Police  Headquarters  in  Mulberry  Street. 
Country  clergymen,  it  was  asserted,  attended  the  play  to 
see  if  it  really  was  fit  for  their  congregations,  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  ""jeunesse  (stage)  d'oree"  haunted  Niblo's. 
The  translation  had  been  made  by  a  Spaniard  named 
Barras,  and  it  is  said  his  fat  royalties  enabled  him  to  buy 
a  country  place  at  Cos  Cob,  the  ground  now  being  occupied 
by  the  Electric  Power  plant  of  the  New  Haven  Railway. 
Every  one  connected  with  the  venture  made  much  money, 
for  the  antagonism  of  the  good  people  of  New  York  which 
is  so  often  the  best  advertisement  was  so  in  this  case  and 
seats  were  at  a  great  premium. 

The  ballet  was  really  less  objectionable  than  those  at 
present  to  be  seen  in  a  half  dozen  theatres,  and  the  dancing, 
notably  that  of  Marie  Bonfanti  (now  an  elderly  and  cor- 
pulent teacher  of  dancing,  if  she  is  still  alive),  was  the 
perfection  of  power  and  grace  combined.  Among  the 
premieres  were  two  Viennese  dancers,  the  Rigl  sisters, 
both  lovely,  modest  and  domestic  women.  I  saw  Emily 
occasionally  as  she  was  a  patient,  and  I  was  rather  pleased 
on  the  eve  of  a  visit  to  Europe  to  have  her  ask  me  to  go 
to  the  Pere  la  Chaise  cemetery  and  see  that  her  mother's 
grave  had  been  taken  care  of,  the  old  lady  having  died  in 
Paris  during  their  absence. 

Most  ill-informed  people  know  very  little  about  the 
morals  of  the  ballet  dancer.    My  knowledge  enables  me 

127 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  say  that  perhaps  it  is  higher  than  any  other  following 
that  belongs  to  the  stage,  and  certainly  the  conscientious 
women  who  follow  this  calling  are  the  most  consistent,  and 
lead  admirable  domestic  lives.  They  are  usually  very  am- 
bitious, and,  as  for  work,  there  is  not  enough  to  be  said  in 
their  favour.  A.  B.  Walkley  has  said  that  "nothing  on 
the  English  stage  is  sacred  except  the  dancing  of  Adeline 
Genee." 

I  have  for  some  time  known  Mile.  Adeline  Genee,  who 
married  Frank  Isitt,  the  business  agent  of  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk.  No  mention  need  be  made  of  her  talent  or  of  her 
industry.  Not  only  does  she  spend  hours  planning  new 
ballets  and  drilling  her  dancing  corps,  but  no  one  does 
such  an  amount  of  real  hard  work.  I  hear  that  when  she 
last  went  on  tour  she  ordered  sixty  pairs  of  dancing 
slippers,  and  wore  these  out  long  before  the  season  was 
over. 

Lydia  Thompson  and  her  company  of  English  bur- 
lesquers  opened  at  Wood's  Museum,  afterwards  Daly's 
Theatre,  in  1868,  affording  a  new  sensation  for  the  jaded 
theatre-goer.  With  this  company  appeared  a  number  of 
very  handsome  women,  as  well  as  HaiTy  Beckett,  v/ho 
later  went  to  Wallack's  and  became  a  great  popular 
favourite.  One  of  the  company  married  a  distinguished 
professor  of  Columbia  University,  and  another — Pauline 
Markham — ^was  celebrated  in  verse  by  Richard  Grant 
White,  the  father  of  the  late  Stanford  White — who,  I  be- 
lieve, wrote  for  or  actually  edited  the  Galaxy,  a  monthly 
magazine. 

One  of  my  earliest  delights  as  a  schoolboy  was  a  visit 
to  Laura  Keene's  theatre  where  Edward  A.  Sothern 
appeared  as  Lord  Dundreary  in  Our  American  Cousin, 
the  same  play  that  filled  Ford's  Theatre  in  Washington 
when  President  Lincoln  was  assassinated.     Sothern  was 

128 


MISS    ADELINE    GENEE 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

an  original  man,  somewhat  queer  and  erratic,  possessed 
with  an  uncanny  humour,  and  unable  quite  to  resist  the 
temptation  to  play  a  practical  joke — in  which  he  was 
usually  asisted  by  William  M.  Travers.  His  old  friend 
William  Winter,  who  at  the  age  of  eighty-six  years  is  alive 
to-day,  tells  a  story  of  his  arraignment  by  Laura  Keene  in 
whose  company  he  was  playing.  He  did  not  know  exactly 
what  was  coming,  but  when  he  silently  entered  her  room  he 
said,  "Before  you  utter  a  word,  Miss  Keene,  let  me  turn 
down  the  gaslight."  "What  is  that  for?"  she  cried  in 
amazement.  "Because  I  can  bear  to  endure  whatever  you 
have  to  say,  but  I  cannot  bear  to  see  those  beautiful  eyes 
blazing  with  passion,  and  that  lovely  face  distorted  with 
wrath.  Go  on  now  and  say  whatever  you  please."  The 
result  was  an  outburst  of  laughter,  in  which  they  both 
joined,  and  there  was  no  admonition. 

It  is  a  curious  thing  that  so  many  actors  lose  their 
minds,  and  I  have  professionally  seen  a  number  of  these 
whose  cases  have  been  a  matter  of  newspaper  discussion. 
Among  these  were  Tony  Hart,  W.  J.  Scanlon,  the  Irish 
comedian,  and  John  McCullough.  The  latter  was  a  pro- 
tege of  Edwin  Forrest  the  robust  tragedian,  and  played 
the  same  range  of  characters.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  actors  in  the  country,  and  leaped  into  fame  as  the 
understudy  of  E.  L.  Davenport,  who  was  playing  The 
Dead  Hearst  in  Boston.  Davenport  did  not  appear  one 
afternoon,  so  McCullough  took  his  place,  making  a  dis- 
tinct hit.  His  mental  disorder  was  not  apparent  at  first, 
though  he  had  explosive  outbursts,  and  did  many  silly 
things.  When  I  saiv  him  he  was  in  a  sad  condition  of 
melancholia  with  hypochondriasis.  This  was  in  1883  and 
he  soon  after  was  sent  to  an  asylum  where  he  died  at  the 
age  of  fifty-one.  He  was,  in  health,  a  kind  and  very 
human  man;  had  nice  tastes,  especially  in  literature,  and 

1129 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

could  quote  Keats  and  Shelley  at  length,  as  well  as  Shake- 
speare. Upon  one  occasion  I  witnessed  from  a  private  box 
the  breakdown  of  another  very  popular  actor  who  until 
this  night  did  not  realise  his  collapse.  He  grew  worse  and 
worse  in  his  delivery  and  then  stared  in  a  meaningless 
way  at  the  audience  and  stopped,  when  the  curtain  was 
slowly  lowered.  The  next  day  he  was  taken  to  Bloom- 
ingdale. 

No  such  pantomime  has  ever  been  known  as  that  given 
by  the  Ravel  Family  who  originally  came  to  New  York  in 
1832,  but  whose  last  engagement  at  Niblo's  was  in  1866. 
For  all  these  thirty-four  years  they  delighted  young  and 
old  with  ingenious  tricks.  Fran9ois  and  Gabriel  were  the 
two  great  mimes  of  their  time  and  gathered  about  them 
various  members  of  their  family  among  the  Zanfrettis 
and  Martinettis.  Their  best  productions  were  Robert 
Macaire,  Jocko  or  the  Brazilian  Ape,  The  Green  Mon- 
ster, and  Mazulah  or  the  Magic  Owl.  Not  only  were  these 
men  great  actors,  but  no  such  mechanical  devices  have 
ever  been  seen  on  the  stage  in  this  country,  and  I  recall  a 
trick  in  which  Gabriel  the  clown  was  besieged  at  the  top 
of  a  lighthouse,  and  seeing  one  of  his  pursuers  standing 
below,  dropped  a  cannon  ball  upon  him.  The  result  was 
that  the  man  beneath  was  completely  flattened  out;  then 
a  companion  appeared  with  a  pair  of  bellows,  inserted  the 
nozzle  somewhere  in  the  flat  remains,  and  inflated  them, 
when  the  revived  and  restored  figure  walked  off  the  stage. 

The  evolution  of  negro  minstrelsy  in  the  United  States 
goes  back  to  the  eighteenth  century,  but  until  the  advent 
of  one  Rice  with  Jim  Crow  there  was  no  important  de- 
velopment in  this  form  of  entertainment.  It  will  surprise 
most  people  to  hear  that  Edwin  Booth,  and  even  his  father 
Junius  Brutus  Booth,  appeared  in  negro  parts,  and  the 
former  played  Sam  Johnson  in  Bone  Squash,  an  early 

ISO 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

Ethiopian  farce,  at  the  Front  Street  Theatre  in  Baltimore. 
Laurence  Barret,  the  tragedian,  and  George  Holland 
followed  his  example — the  latter  in  a  female  black  part — 
while  Joseph  Jefferson,  when  a  boy,  took  part  in  a  benefit 
as  a  miniature  Jim  Crow,  When  quite  a  lad  I  enjoyed 
a  "nigger  minstrel  show"  as  a  particularly  delightful  treat. 
George  Christy,  whose  real  name  was  George  Harring- 
ton, who  died  in  1868,  appeared  at  Mechanic's  Hall  with 
his  brother  E.  P.  Christy,  and  Foster's  familiar  composi- 
tions, which  included  Nelly  Bly,  Oh  Susannah^  Old  Dog 
Tray^  Old  Kentucky  Home,  Way  Down  Upon  the  Su- 
wanee  River,  and  Hard  Times  Come  Again  No  More, 
were  sung  into  world-wide  popularity.  I  have  heard  the 
latter  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  even  in  far-off  Japan. 

Dan  Bryant,  who  was  the  most  liked  of  New  York  min- 
strels, opened  at  Mechanic's  Hall  in  185T,  and  later  in 
1868  at  Tammany  Hall  in  the  annex.  Before  his  death 
he  moved  to  his  own  theatre  on  West  Twenty-third  Street 
near  Sixth  Avenue.  With  his  brother  Neil,  Nelse  Sey- 
mour, and  a  good  company  he  immediately  became  a 
favourite.  There  were  people  like  the  late  Judge  John  R. 
Brady  who  had  particular  seats  reserved  for  them  every 
week,  and  Saturday  night  had  its  especial  clientele.  A 
pleasant,  jocose  relationship  existed  between  the  company 
and  the  audience  which  stretched  beyond  the  footlights, 
and  personal  jokes  at  the  expense  of  those  present  were 
not  unusual.  Some  habitue,  perhaps  a  prominent  man 
who  had  lost  at  poker  the  night  before,  or  who  was  the 
hero  of  some  ludicrous  story,  found  himself  quietly  guyed, 
the  news  of  his  escapade  being  secretly  communicated  to 
the  "middle  man"  who  made  use  of  it. 

"Billy"  Ricketts,  who  afterward,  through  the  influence 
of  Judge  Brady,  became  Chief  Clerk  in  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  later  held  the  same  position  with  the  Appellate 

131 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Division,  for  a  long  time  was  the  ticket  taker  at  Bryant's, 
and  knew  more  people  by  sight  at  that  time  than  any  one 
in  this  country. 

Other  old  minstrels,  some  of  whom  I  knew  weU,  were: 
Birch,  Backus,  and  Wambold,  the  latter  a  wonderful 
tenor  who  later  died  of  tuberculosis;  Dan  Reed,  who 
toured  with  his  family  until  he  was  a  very  old  man  as  the 
"Reed  Birds;"  Ad.  Ryrnan,  a  dry  comedian;  Bob  Hart, 
who  had  been  educated  for  the  pulpit  and  who  delivered 
side-splitting  comic  orations;  Luke  Schoolcraft,  and  the 
unctuous  Unsworth.  Kelly  and  Leon  were,  after  the 
Civil  War,  at  720  Broadway,  and  put  on  the  stage  sev- 
eral rather  amusing  negro  burlesques  of  French  opera 
bouff e,  as  did  the  Worral  sisters  a  few  doors  above  in  an 
old  converted  church,  almost  opposite  the  New  York 
hotel.  Leon  was  the  "female  impersonator"  and  made  up 
and  sang  the  music  of  The  Gt^ande  Duchesse  very  accept- 
ably. He  was,  I  believe,  a  graduate  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
college  and  a  decent  young  man.  His  partner  was  one 
KeUy,  who  shot  a  politician  and  business  rival  in  Twenty- 
eighth  Street  who,  he  declared,  had  slandered  him.  When 
the  case  was  tried  a  loophole  of  a  technical  character  in 
the  medical  testimony  saved  his  life,  but  after  this  episode 
the  business  declined.  In  1879  Gilbert  and  Sullivan  came 
to  this  country,  and  with  them  was  Alfred  Cellier,  the 
former  London  conductor.  He  had  been  educated  with 
Sullivan  at  the  Chapel  Royal,  and  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  he  composed  and  arranged  much  of  the  music  of  the 
Gilbert  and  Sullivan  operas,  at  least  much  more  than  that 
for  which  he  was  given  credit;  that,  as  he  was  a  good- 
natured,  easy-going  man,  he  never  availed  himself  of  the 
kudos.  I  know  of  no  one  who  was  so  thoroughly  drilled 
in  orchestration,  and  when  the  company  hurried  over  to 
produce  the  Pirates  of  Penzance,  it  was  found  that  the 

13a 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

entire  score  was  missing  and  a  rehearsal  was  called  for 
nine  o'clock  the  following  morning.  All  that  Cellier  had 
was  a  piano  score,  so,  with  a  bottle  of  whiskey  at  his  el- 
bow, he  sat  up  all  the  night,  and  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  just  twelve  hours  after,  he  had  a  perfect  score 
for  the  big  band.  It  was  a  superhuman  effort,  but  when 
he  joined  me  at  breakfast  he  was  as  fresh  and  chipper  as 
<cver.  The  large  orchestra  Sir  Arthur  insisted  upon  had 
never  been  gotten  together  before  except  for  Grand 
Opera,  and  the  novelty  had  much  to  do  with  the  success  of 
the  Savoy  productions. 

I  saw  much  of  Gilbert,  both  in  this  country  and  sub- 
sequently in  London,  where  we  met  at  our  club.  He 
always  was  ready  for  a  sinister  joke,  except  when  beside 
himself  with  rage  when  he  found  that  others  were  pirating 
his  work,  or  attempting  to  alter  his  book.  One  can  im- 
agine his  withering  sarcasm  shown  upon  an  occasion  when 
in  New  York  a  certain  manager  suggested  that  he  should 
localise  the  libretto  and  introduce  into  Pinafore  the 
name  of  a  certain  American  naval  officer.  He  was  al- 
ways kind  to  the  chorus  girls,  who  as  a  rule  are  always 
damned  and  bullied  when  they  are  stupid.  Of  course 
there  were  the  little  rows  and  bickerings  that  one  always 
finds  among  theatrical  people.  One  day  a  little  chorus 
girl  came  to  him  with  tears  in  her  eyes  and  said,  "Oh,  Mr. 
Gilbert,  what  do  you  think  that  girl  over  there  said  about 
me?  She  said  that  I  was  no  better  than  I  should  be,"  to 
which  Gilbert  replied,  "You  are,  my  dear — ^you  know  you 
are,"  and  with  this  ambiguous  assurance  the  girl  dried 
her  eyes  and  went  smilingly  back  to  her  place  in  the  rear 
rank  of  the  chorus. 

At  the  time  of  Pinafore  when  Richard  Mansfield  played 
the  part  of  Admiral  Sir  Joseph  Porter^  every  one  became 
wild  with  enthusiasm,  and  companies  were  formed  all  over 

133 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  country.  There  were  church  Pinafore  companies, 
Masonic  Pinafore  companies  and  infantile  Pinafore  com- 
panies— George  Edgar,  the  tragedian,  and  Chandos  Ful- 
ton, his  partner,  owned  and  managed  one  of  the  latter. 
As  a  side  issue  they  hired  a  dilapidated  old  side-wheel 
steamboat  called  the  Twilight  and  flew  a  Pinafore  flag, 
taking  daily  excursions  down  to  Coney  Island,  the  idea,  I 
suppose,  being  suggested  by  the  incident  in  Stevenson's 
The  Wreckers.  All  the  crew  were  in  appropriate  uni- 
form with  bands  about  their  hats,  while  Edgar  and  Ful- 
ton, resplendent  in  gold  lace,  received  the  heterogeneous 
crowd  at  the  gang  plank. 

The  appearance  of  Barnum  and  Bailey's  Circus  was  al- 
ways a  timely  reminder  of  the  commencement  of  spring, 
and  in  its  way  as  much  of  an  event  as  the  taking  down 
of  stoves,  and  the  annual  house-cleaning  in  the  country. 
Sometimes  its  opening  at  the  Madison  Square  Garden 
was  premature,  as  was  the  case  on  March  12th,  1888,  the 
time  of  the  great  blizzard,  when  the  whole  city  was  en- 
veloped in  snow  with  impassable  drifts  that  were  not  re- 
moved for  days,  and  in  some  streets  weeks ;  everything  was 
paralysed,  and  those  people  going  to  their  homes  uptown 
were  glad  enough  to  find  a  midway  shelter.  The  Uni- 
versity Club,  then  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-sixth  Street 
and  Madison  Avenue,  was  crowded,  the  members  sleep- 
ing on  billiard  tables,  and  I  believe  even  on  the  floor. 
They  were  a  jolly  lot,  and  after  dinner  some  one  pro- 
posed that  we  should  go  to  the  circus,  so  we  all  went 
across  the  street  and  found  the  show  people  were  not 
daunted  but  proposed  to  "keep  faith  with  the  public." 
No  one  dared  enter  the  Garden  but  ourselves,  so  we  took 
our  seats,  about  one  hundred  in  all,  on  one  side  of  the  vast 
amphitheatre,  quite  close  together.  The  show  began,  the 
performers  as  conscientiously  going  through  with  the  per- 

134. 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

formance  as  if  there  were  five  thousand  persons  present. 
When  the  bareback  riders  passed  us  they  received  a  roar- 
ing welcome,  but  there  was  something  weird  in  their  sub- 
sequent departure  for  the  other  side  of  the  great  place 
where  all  was  dark  and  silent.  The  same  thing  occurred 
with  all  the  acts,  and  soon  the  circus  people  were  on  inti- 
mate terms  with  us,  and  the  clown  found  out  who  we  were 
and  indulged  in  the  most  personal  kind  of  gags.  Before 
the  performance  the  "freaks"  sat  in  a  long  row  in  an 
upper  room.  One  of  them  was,  I  think,  Sitting  Bull  or 
some  other  Indian  brave,  who  with  his  war  paint  seemed 
ready  to  attack  any  one  he  did  not  like.  Quite  near  him 
sat  the  fat  woman  and  the  bearded  lady,  and  there  were 
other  strange  females  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  our  party 
was  Frank  J s,  a  little  man  who  gloried  in  saying  al- 
leged bright  things  and  playing  practical  jokes.  Ap- 
proaching the  glowering  savage,  who  undoubtedly  under- 
stood some  English,  J s,  with  a  sweep  of  his  hand 

which  took  in  the  women,  said  to  him,  "Are  these  all  your 
wives?"  Sitting  Bull  with  a  snarl  of  rage  was  about  to 
leave  the  platform  to  answer  the  question  in  his  own  way 

when  J s  darted  away  to  a  place  of  safety,  and  we 

later  saw  hun  sitting  under  the  wing  of  the  biggest  man 
in  the  party. 

When  I  was  a  medical  student  one  of  the  popular 
amusements  was  to  go  down  to  the  Bowery  Theatre  and 
see  the  "Count  Johannes,"  a  paranoid  actor,  who  ranted 
and  mouthed,  and  who  patiently  stood  the  avalanche  of 
decayed  vegetables  thrown  upon  the  stage  by  the  noisy 
audience.  He  had  been  for  many  years  an  intelligent 
though  unconvincing  actor,  but  after  his  disease  became 
apparent  no  one  could  keep  him  off  the  stage.  He  came 
to  the  United  States  in  1836,  and  when  I  saw  him  he 
must  have  been  a  man  of  sixty.     Like  George  Francis 

135 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Train,  he  was  a  harmless  lunatic  with  the  intense  love  of 
notoriety  so  characteristic  of  this  disease,  but  no  bitter 
resentment  for  those  who  did  not  appreciate  his  genius — 
only  pity. 

I  met  Mrs.  Scott  Siddons  in  1869  through  my  friends 
the  Majors,  of  Second  Avenue.  She  was  a  very  beautiful 
woman,  bearing  a  striking  likeness  to  her  great  ancestress, 
the  celebrated  Sarah  Siddons.  Her  beauty  was  refined, 
and  while  intelligent,  she  was  not  impressive  because  of 
certain  mannerisms,  so  her  stay  in  the  United  States  was 
neither  long  nor  profitable.  There  were  many  old  actors 
in  New  York  who,  though  possessing  great  talent  and 
aptitude,  especially  in  character  parts,  never  became  dis- 
tinguished, and  always  had  rather  bad  luck.  One  of 
these  was  Harry  St.  Maur,  an  English  gentleman  who 
had  gone  on  the  stage.  Every  one  must  remember  his 
delightful  impersonation  of  the  old  French  music  teacher 
with  the  only  daughter,  a  part  played  deliciously  and  with 
rare  humour  by  Selina  Dolaro.  Another  actor  of  this 
class  was  Charles  P.  Flockton,  who  came  over  with  E.  P. 
Willard.  He  was  a  dear  old  man,  quite  Dickensesque, 
cooking  his  own  red  herring  at  his  lodgings,  playing  the 
zither  beautifully,  and  painting  in  oil  with  a  great  deal  of 
skill;  he  greatly  resembled  Henry  Irving  both  in  voice 
and  appearance.  One  of  the  most  interesting  musical 
prodigies  was  Josef  Hofmann,  now  one  of  the  two  or 
three  leading  pianists  of  the  day,  whose  greatness  in- 
creases with  his  years.  I  met  him  as  a  small  boy  of  ten, 
when  he  was  playing  under  the  management  of  the  late 
Henry  Abbey,  and  he  was  a  little  chap  who  took  as  much 
pleasure  in  his  toys  as  in  his  wonderful  music.  Those 
who  heard  him  then  must  remember  his  great  genius  and 
the  manner  in  which  he  enthralled  the  huge  audiences  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.     Abbey  was  making  a 

136 


JOSEF   HOFMANN    AT   THE   AGE  OF   TEN 


NEW  YORK  THEATRICALS 

fortune,  when  one  fine  day  he  was  descended  upon  by 
Elbridge  Gerry  of  the  Children's  Society,  who  saw  a 
chance  to  create  a  sensation.  Josef  played  but  little  in 
public,  and  always  enjoyed  what  he  did  intensely;  he  had 
plenty  of  time  for  recreation.  Gerry  made  demands  that 
would  have  ruined  Mr.  Abbey,  but  the  kind  Mayor,  Mr. 
Hewitt,  had  a  hearing  to  settle  the  matter  himself.  I 
saw  Josef,  with  the  late  Dr.  Lewis  A.  Sayre,  at  the  re- 
quest of  his  manager,  and  found  him  to  be  a  bright, 
healthy  boy,  not  at  all  nervous  or  overworked.  He  ate 
and  slept  well,  and  hardly  could  be  kept  from  the  piano. 
At  the  age  of  five  years  and  six  months  he  had  already 
written  a  Mazourka,  and  Rubinstein  called  him  the 
"greatest  wonder  of  the  present  age."  As  the  result  of 
this  interview  and  of  the  interference  his  performances 
were  limited  to  four  a  week.  Subsequently  some  "wealthy 
resident"  of  New  York  offered  $50,000  for  Josef's  educa- 
tion if  he  would  leave  the  concert  stage,  but  $100,000  was 
demanded  by  his  father.  The  father  on  his  own  account 
broke  his  contract  with  Mr.  Abbey,  was  sued  by  the  latter, 
and  subsequently  a  compromise  was  effected^ 

I  had  met  "Artemas  Ward,"  the  humourist,  through  my 
brother,  who  drew  for  Vanity  Fair,  and  one  night  I  went 
to  see  him  as  he  was  about  to  lecture  at  Dodsworth's  Hall, 
806  Broadway,  upon  The  Mormons.  "Artemas  Ward" 
or  Charles  Farrar  Browne,  who  had  been  lecturing  since 
1861,  was  a  gaunt,  pale  young  man  with  an  enormous 
pointed  nose,  red  hair  and  straggling  moustache.  He 
even  then  showed  the  emaciation  that  attends  tuberculosis, 
and  coughed  a  great  deal  during  our  interview.  He  re- 
ceived me  in  a  cold,  barren  room,  we  being  separated  by 
the  drop  curtain  from  the  small  audience  that  had  filtered 
in  from  the  raging  snow  storm  outside.  After  waiting 
half  an  hour  after  the  announced  time,  he  went  forward 

137 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

in  no  cheerful  frame  of  mind  and  began.  The  sparse 
audience,  of  whom  I  was  one,  laughed  as  heartily  as  if 
the  hall  was  crowded,  and  he  kept  on  describing  his  crazy 
pictures  in  his  curious  solemn  way,  apparently  unconscious 
that  he  was  excruciatingly  funny. 


188 


CHAPTER   X 

VACATIONS  ABROAD 

(japan,  ALGERIA  AND  MOROCCO) 

Japan — ^Vancouver  to  Japan — Feudal  Influences — Shoguns,  Daimios, 
and  Samurai — Ancestor  Worship  and  Christianity — I  Visit  the 
Interior — American  Misconception  of  the  Japanese — Alleged  Im- 
morality of  Promiscuous  Bathing — The  Soul  of  Old  Japan — Im- 
ported Servants  and  Their  Ways — Japanese  Delicacies — Kyoto 
and  the  Kwannon — Cremation — Madame  Chrysantheme — Family 
Morals — The  Hotel  Yami  at  Kyoto — Geisha  Girls — Water  Fetes 
at  Osaka — The  Warm  Springs  at  Myanoshita — Baron  Kaneko 
Kantaro — Algeria — Lion  Hunting  and  Hyenas — The  "Man  of 
Two  Tombs" — Gorge  of  ChifFa — A  Historical  Fish  Chowder — ■ 
Tunis  and  the  Palace  of  the  Bey — Snake  Charming — Some  Risky 
Experiments — Robert  Hichens  and  the  "Garden  of  Allah" — The 
Market  Place — The  Street  of  the  Ouled  Nails — Sidi-Okba — An 
Arab  School — Circus  Arabs — Ben  Ali  the  Bold — Our  Friend 
Hamid — Dangerous  Hunting — Constantine — Williams  Loses  His 
Shoes — Tangiers. 

I  HAVE  always  felt  the  truth  of  Locke's  observation  that 
"He  that  will  make  good  use  of  any  part  of  his  life  must 
allow  a  large  portion  of  it  to  recreation,"  and  perhaps  even 
at  the  cost  of  interference  with  my  professional  work  I 
have  at  times  sought  absolute  change  of  scene  and  life. 
After  all  these  years  I  have  no  regrets;  for  the  men  who 
not  only  have  gotten  most  out  of  life,  but  those  who  have 
learned  how  best  to  understand  their  fellow  men  are  the 

139 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ones  who  have  escaped  drudgery,  and  occasionally  have 
gone  out  into  the  World. 

At  various  times,  therefore,  have  I  locked  my  desk, 
turned  over  my  practice  to  others,  and  gone  to  remote  parts 
for  diversion.  One  of  my  pleasantest  summers  was  that 
spent  in  Japan  in  1893.  An  early  medical  book  of  mine 
had  been  previously  translated  by  a  distinguished  Japa- 
nese doctor,  and  on  my  aiTival  I  was  greeted  with  the 
following  quaint  welcome,  which  was  published  in  the  lead- 
ing native  medical  journal,  and  of  which  I  am  told  the 
following  is  a  translation: 

"Dr.  Hamilton's  visiting  Japan — Dr.  Hamilton  of  New  York 
City,  wiio  is  world-known  for  his  electoric-cure,  came  to  our  coun- 
try a  few  days  ago  and  is  now  staying  in  Yokohama.  One  of  his 
works  was  translated  and  published  by  Dr.  Eihaku  Sato  at  the 
past  fourteenth  year  of  Meiji  under  the  name  of  Dr.  Hamilton's 
Electori-Cure,  and  read  very  widely." 

In  July  I  had  crossed  the  Continent  by  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Haihvay,  and  embarked  upon  one  of  its  comfort- 
able steamers,  the  Empress  of  JapaUj  for  Yokohama, 
which  we  reached  after  a  comparatively  peaceful  and  rather 
uneventful  voyage  of  eleven  days,  the  only  land  seen  being 
the  dismal  Aleutian  Islands  off  the  Alaskan  coast.  The 
comparative  rapidity  of  the  transition  from  one  country 
to  another  most  radically  different  was  my  earliest  and 
most  intense  impression,  and  it  was  something  like  that 
first  view  of  the  Brazilian  coast  nearly  thirty  years  be- 
fore. I  saw  early  one  morning  a  beautiful,  highly-col- 
oured moving  picture  of  sampans  and  other  craft,  and 
their  brown,  half-clad  occupants,  framed  in  a  landscape  of 
incredible  loveliness,  the  central  figure  of  which  was  the 
towering,  conical  Fuji-Yama.  I  thrilled  with  the  novelty 
of  it  aU,  and  left  an  untasted  breakfast  so  that  I  might 

140 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

not  lose  a  minute  of  the  constantly  changing  panorama. 
The  only  jar  came  with  our  arrival,  when  for  a  few  days 
we  could  not  escape  the  Occidental  contamination  of  a 
semi-foreign  port.  There  was  the  usual  dominant  and 
loud-voiced  tourist  lounging  upon  the  hotel  piazza,  and 
the  large  sprinkling  of  Japanese  in  battered  derby  hats. 
Even  the  jinriksha  men  had  learned  the  tricks  of  Western 
hackmen,  and  the  Chinese  tailors  and  other  touts  de- 
scended upon  us  to  supply  exceedingly  cheap  and  season- 
able clothing,  which  we  ordered.  A  few  dollars — I  think 
ten — ^would  buy  an  excellent  dress  suit,  and  everything 
else  was  in  proportion. 

I  soon  met  good  Dr,  Eldridge,  a  Civil  War  veteran, 
who  I  beheve  had  been  also  originally  a  surgeon  in  the 
Pacific  Mail  service,  and  had  settled  down  with  his  fam- 
ily in  Yokohama  at  a  time  when  it  was  very  dangerous 
for  foreigners  to  live  in  Japan.  He,  like  the  genial  Louis 
Eppinger,  the  proprietor  of  the  Grand  Hotel,  was  a  de- 
cided old  timer  and  liked  by  every  one,  for  he  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Japanese  as  well  as  those  living  on  the  Bund. 
A  great  deal  of  the  early  gossip  of  the  island  was  told 
me  by  Eldridge,  for  we  had  much  in  common,  and  he 
cordially  welcomed  a  new  professional  comrade.  It  was 
difficult  to  realise,  from  what  he  said,  that  only  sixteen 
years  before,  blundering  and  tactless  strangers  were  being 
run  through  with  the  long  sword  because  they  ignorantly 
used  the  words  from  the  coolie  dialect  to  salute  the  digni- 
taries with  whom  they  came  in  contact,  instead  of  the  cere- 
monial language  of  the  higher  classes.  At  this  time  and 
before,  notwithstanding  the  welcome  extended  to  Ameri- 
can teachers,  it  was  all  the  authorities  could  do  to  pre- 
vent blood-thirsty  attacks  for  fancied  insults.  However, 
all  this  was  changed  later  with  the  subsidence  of  the  in- 
tolerant methods  of  the  Shoguns,  Daimios  and  more  or 

141 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

less  ignorant  Samurai,  who  could  not  escape  the  feudal 
influences  that  die  so  hard.  The  Samurai  especially  could 
not  bear  to  give  up  their  primitive  and  exceedingly  punc- 
tilious clan  distinctions  and  their  dislike  of  outsiders.  This 
sprang  from  the  time  of  the  Dutch  occupation  of  Naga- 
saki, and  no  one  can  blame  the  Japanese  for  their  inherited 
resentment  against  this  race,  as  well  as  the  Portuguese, 
for  having  introduced  syphilis  among  a  previously  healthy 
people — a  malady  which  spread  like  a  plague  over  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land  and  still  shows  its  effects. 

The  so-called  "Jesuit  Peril"  which  threatened  Japanese 
national  integrity  was  also  not  forgotten,  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  the  people  were  inhospitable.  The  success- 
ful attempt  to  antagonise  Christianity  was  chiefly  due  to 
Hideyoshi  and  lyesau,  two  great  generals,  and  to-day, 
despite  the  attempts  of  missionaries,  the  race  has  retained 
its  autonomy,  and  any  religion  is  simply  an  ethical  ele- 
ment of  their  civilisation.  The  Buddhist  and  Shinto  re- 
ligions, while  they  have  a  general  adoption,  are  useful  be- 
cause of  the  part  they  play  in  the  social  and  economic 
life  of  this  interesting  and  serious  people. 

I  found  that  most  of  the  public  works  were  initiated 
and  carried  out  with  the  aid  of  the  Buddhist  priests,  while 
the  universal  and  intense  patriotism  was  due  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  military  traditions  of  the  Shinto  cult,  which 
is  the  real  ancestor  worship — ^both  family,  clan  and  state. 
It  does  not  even  appear  that  those  cultured  natives  who 
have  been  educated  at  various  American  and  European 
universities  have  embraced  Christianity  to  any  great  ex- 
tent, for  with  the  exception  of  a  few  Japanese  mission- 
aries who  have  gone  to  religious  seminaries  in  the  United 
States,  all  who  have  returned  are  loyal  to  the  religion  of 
their  ancestors,  and  in  1912  there  were  only  130,000  Chris- 
tians in  a  population  of  50,000,000. 

142 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

After  spending  a  few  days  in  Yokohama  I  visited  places 
in  the  surrounding  countiy,  among  them  Enoshima,  the 
shrine  at  Kamakura,  Yokushima  and  Myanoshita,  and 
later  went  to  Nagoya,  the  old  military  fortress,  and  to 
Nikko,  Kyoto,  Nara,  and  Osaka.  My  trip,  though  not 
a  very  long  one,  was  most  interesting.  I  made  the  most 
of  my  time  armed  with  useful  letters  and  accompanied  by 
a  good  guide,  and  it  sufficed  to  give  me  a  very  illuminating 
idea  of  Japanese  ways  and  character. 

I  have  felt  ever  since  the  greatest  respect  and  admira- 
tion for  this  people  and  their  honourable  traditions  to 
which  they  cling,  and  I  am  sorry  that  my  own  country- 
men, especially  the  ill-informed  and  prejudiced,  have  al- 
ways entertained  the  opinion  that  the  Japanese  are  a  quar- 
relsome, conceited,  and  uncivilised  ( !)  race,  who  are  ever 
"spoiling  for  a  fight"  with  their  American  neighbours. 
Nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth,  for  even  the  most 
superficial  reading  about  or  intercourse  with  them  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  the  Japanese  are  a  dignified,  chivalrous, 
and  brave  people,  with  a  fine  sense  of  honour.  They  are 
peaceful,  domestic  and  modest;  only  stirred  to  a  sense  of 
wrong  when  real  or  attempted  advantage  is  taken,  or 
when  they  are  actually  insulted  and  called  "niggers"  or 
"monkeys"  by  some  of  the  boorish  people  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  So,  too,  their  civilisation  is  apparent  when  we  turn 
to  their  literature,  and  study  their  art  of  all  kinds,  and 
the  existence  for  centuries  of  an  ethical  basis  of  conduct 
which  regulates  all  their  social  customs. 

About  twenty  years  ago  their  surprise  was  great  to  find 
that  they  were  regarded  as  an  immoral  nation.  Prior  to 
1890  they  had  no  false  idea  of  modesty,  for  men  and 
women  bathed  together  in  public,  and  indulged  in  acts- 
innocent  enough  in  themselves,  but  evidently  offensive  to 
the  bigoted  and  intolerant  of  other  countries,  who  came 

143 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

among  them  with  hands  raised  in  horror.  First  it  was 
Clement  Scott,  and  again  Royalty,  that  rushed  into  print, 
and  even  prevailed  upon  the  little  Empress  to  call  the  at- 
tention of  her  people  to  the  fact  that  indiscriminate  bath- 
ing was  quite  improper  and  something  to  be  discouraged. 
The  bare  legs  of  the  jim'iksha  men,  even,  came  in  for  the 
same  kind  of  criticism  that  one  heard  in  Havana  at  the 
time  of  the  first  American  occupation. 

The  Japanese  are  not  a  sexually  demonstrative  people, 
for  they  never  kiss  each  other,  at  least  in  public.  Their 
love  making  is  idyllic,  a  verse  or  two  and  a  visit  to  the 
father  complete  the  initial  preparation.  Their  literature 
even  is  free  from  sensuality,  and  the  only  obscenities  I 
saw  were  the  ancient  caricatures  of  the  Dutch  in  Nagasaki. 
It  is  true  that  their  netsukes  are  often  sexually  humorous, 
but  there  is  nothing  salacious  about  these. 

The  criticism  of  women's  dress  which  was  heard  even 
during  my  visit  from  those  who  recommended  the  intro- 
duction of  European  dress,  reminds  me  of  Stevenson's 
reference  to  the  mischievous  activities  of  the  female  mis- 
sionaries in  the  Marquesas  Islands :  "The  mind  of  the  fe- 
male missionary  tends,  for  instance,  to  be  continuously 
busied  about  dress.  She  cannot  be  taught  without  ex- 
treme difficulty  to  think  any  costume  decent  but  that  to 
which  she  grew  accustomed  on  Clapham  Common;  and  to 
gratify  this  prejudice  the  native  is  put  to  useless  expense, 
his  mind  is  tainted  with  the  morbidity  of  Europe,  and  his 
health  is  set  in  danger." 

Much  of  the  pride  of  race  consists  in  what  is  called 
the  Yamato-Damashi — hterally,  "The  Soul  of  Old  Ja- 
pan." As  Hearn  has  pointed  out,  this  led  the  great  Shinto 
scholars  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  to 
put  forth  the  bold  assertion  that  "conscience  alone  was 
a  sufficient  ethical  guide."    This  declared  the  high  quality 

144 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

of  the  Japanese  conscience,  "a  proof  of  the  divine  origin 
of  the  race." 

The  influence  of  the  Yamato-Damashi  accounts  not  only 
for  much  of  the  dreaming  and  even  fatalism  of  the  sol- 
dier of  the  country,  but  for  the  steadfastness  and  pros- 
perity of  the  nation.  This  faith  was  an  important  element 
of  the  feudal  system,  and  even  to-day  the  descendants  of 
the  Shoguns  and  their  retainers  are  the  possessors  not  only 
of  a  high  sense  of  honour,  but  a  faithfulness  to  their  em- 
ployer and  those  in  authority,  which  is  enduring.  The 
Samurai,  or  feudal  retainers,  are  still  devoted  servants 
and  to-day  hold  their  allegiance  to  an  old  master,  although 
the  conditions  are  entirely  different  to  those  that  existed 
before  1868. 

The  recognition  of  adopted  paternity  is  a  delightful 
though  sometimes  an  embarrassing  custom,  and  one  of  the 
two  boys  I  brought  over  to  New  York  persisted  in  calling 
himself  my  "musko"  (son).  He  was,  until  the  lure  of 
a  larger  salary  and  better  position  came,  a  willing  and 
devoted  servant.  He  actually,  upon  one  occasion,  saved 
my  life,  for  his  companion,  the  cook,  who  was  a  low  caste 
Oriental  and  (I  afterward  heard)  had  killed  a  man  in 
Japan,  took  offense  at  some  criticism  I  had  made  upon 
his  cooking,  lay  in  wait,  and  would  have  assassinated  me 
had  it  not  been  for  "Shillo,"  who  watched  him  with  feline 
persistency.  One  man  I  knew,  who  told  his  Japanese 
butler  to  look  after  his  wife  in  his  absence,  found  on  his 
return  that  the  servant  had  literally  slept  on  the  door- 
mat outside  her  room,  fully  armed  with  a  large  Japanese 
sword  that  had  formed  a  part  of  a  trophy  on  the  wall. 
My  man  had  two  brothers  in  the  army  at  home,  one  of 
whom  was  a  colonel.  He  had  a  high  opinion  of  himself, 
therefore,  and  looked  down  upon  the  Swedish  cook.  One 
day  I  found  a  long  letter  upon  the  hall  table,  which  he 

145 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

had  secretly  left  for  me  to  read.  I  do  not  now  remember 
all  its  delicious  pidgeon-English,  but  he  began  by  warning 
me  against  the  alleged  iniquity  of  the  woman,  and  ex- 
tolled his  own  perspicuity  in  finding  out  her  evil  ways 
by  a  comparison  with  a  brave  general  of  his  own  land — 
"How  Gen.  Hydeoshi  knew  there  was  amblush  (ambush)  ? 
He  hear  wild  gleese  (geese),"  etc. — and  then  he  advised 
me  to  look  out  for  her  wickedness  and  discharge  her.  One 
of  his  laudable  but  distracting  occupations  was  self -in- 
struction, and  he  read  the  Youth's  Companion  for  the  pur- 
pose of  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  English,  always  neglect- 
ing, while  so  engaged,  the  door  bell  or  any  other  simimons. 
Although  a  Japanese  gentleman,  he  actually  married  an 
ugly,  cockney,  squinting  maid-servant,  with  the  accent  of 
Bow-Bells,  and  these  mesalliances  are  common  with  Ori- 
entals, who  prefer  white  women,  rather  looking  down  on 
their  own  kind. 

The  other  man  was  really  a  most  dangerous  character, 
with  bloodthirsty  instincts,  and  upon  one  occasion  tried 
to  stab  an  offensive  German  workman  who  in  terror  bar- 
ricaded himself  in  an  upper  room  of  my  house.  When 
the  cook  was  brought  before  me  he  had  a  long  white  cotton 
cloth  wound  about  his  hand  that  held  the  carving  knife 
with  which  he  intended  to  kill  the  man.  This  was  to  cover 
his  own  abdominal  wound  when  he  should  subsequently 
commit  hari-kari,  which  he  intended  doing,  after  he  had 
disposed  of  the  mechanic. 

I  found  the  Japanese  food,  with  one  exception,  rather 
unsuited  to  western  palates,  and  I  never  could  bring  my- 
self to  eat  the  flesh  of  the  quivering  and  even  flopping 
live  carp  that  was  placed  before  me  at  formal  dinners  and 
which  is  considered  so  great  a  delicacy ;  nor  could  I  eat  the 
crab  of  Kamakura  that  bears  upon  its  back  the  likeness  of 
a  human  face.    The  one  palatable  dish  is  a  rather  tasteful 

146 


"SIllLLO        I.N     ins     ANCESTORS     ARMOR 


NATIVE    WELCOME    TO    THE    AUTHOR 


®  ft 

€    % 

S  1st 

m 

•it* 


b  It  "^ 


5^  It 

it  ^  ^ 

i/i  ^  f 

e  ^ 

It  7j; 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

combination  of  young  eels  and  rice  dressed  with  soy,  which 
is  the  base  of  our  own  Worcester  sauce  and  the  product 
of  the  soya  bean.  The  dish  is  called  unagi  and  the  best 
is  obtained  at  Kyoto.  Like  the  custom  at  the  inns  in 
Southern  Austria  and  elsewhere,  where  the  guest  is  asked 
to  pick  his  blue  trout  from  a  pool  for  his  breakfast,  the 
latest  arrival  at  the  Golden  Koi  or  some  other  place  selects 
his  eels  and  they  are  carried  off  to  be  dressed  and  broiled 
over  a  charcoal  fire. 

As  is  well  known,  the  Japanese  are  a  pleasure-loving 
people,  and  are  most  ingenious  in  the  creation  or  selection 
of  their  amusements.  The  theatre  with  them,  even  before 
the  days  of  the  luxurious  Tokugawas,  has  been  a  national 
institution. 

I  saw  a  weird  production  in  which  Commodore  Perry 
and  a  group  of  American  officers  appeared  in  awkward 
and  ill-fitting  uniforms  and  accoutrements.  There  was 
something  very  jarring  about  all  this,  and  one  longed  for 
the  purely  characteristic  dress  and  story  which  were  to 
follow.  The  Japanese  theatre  is  a  great  barn-like  place 
with  flimsy  boxes  and  a  gangway  that  runs  down  the  cen- 
tre of  the  auditorium  over  the  heads  of  the  audience.  This 
is  called  the  Hana  MicTii^  or  flower  walk,  and  is  provided 
for  the  performers  to  reach  the  stage,  it  being  customary 
for  the  admirers  of  a  favourite  actor  to  strew  his  path  with 
flowers. 

The  revolving  stage,  which  anticipated  the  arrangement 
of  Steele  Mackaye  at  the  Madison  Square  Theatre  in  New 
York  many  years  ago,  enables  the  stage  hand  to  arrange 
the  next  scene  when  the  first  half  is  being  used.  Danjiro, 
the  Henry  Irving  of  the  Japanese  stage,  played  the  night 
I  was  there,  and  he  invariably  varies  his  performances 
each  time,  so  one  can  never  complain  of  sameness  and 
lack  of  histrionic  variety. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Ordinary  politeness  and  the  consideration  for  the  feel- 
ing of  others  were  the  only  things  that  prevented  one  from 
laughing  at  the  anachronisms  and  primitive  methods  em- 
ployed. I  saw  a  boy  clad  in  black  who  held  a  reflector 
which  surrounded  a  candle;  this  evidently  took  the  place 
of  the  spotlight,  and  he  darted  from  one  actor  to  another, 
holding  it  as  near  to  the  face  as  possible!  It  is  said  that 
sometimes  the  revolving  stage,  as  the  result  of  a  wrong 
signal,  is  turned  prematurely  and  those  who  are  pre- 
paring the  setting  for  a  coming  act  are  whirled  to  the 
front.  However,  the  scenic  effects  in  the  larger  theatres 
are  reaUy  marvellous,  and  the  scene  painting  quite  rea- 
listic. 

While  I  was  in  Kyoto  there  were  several  festivals, 
among  them  that  of  the  floral  Kwannon.  There  are  at 
this  time  processions  of  beautifully  decorated  floats,  some 
of  them  being  hung  with  real  Gobelin  and  Flemish  tapes- 
tries which  were  given  to  the  Japanese  by  the  unwelcome 
early  foreign  residents,  or  sent  by  European  governments ; 
but  I  think  the  people  themselves  prefer  the  products  of 
their  own  looms  and  their  native  art.  From  a  second- 
story  window  I  photographed  one  of  the  historical  floats, 
much  to  the  amusement  of  the  boys  in  the  street. 

The  disposal  of  the  dead  in  Japan  is  nowadays  largely 
by  cremation,  and  one  evening  I  ascended  a  hiU  to  the 
Nagashij  back  of  the  city  of  Yokohama,  passing  several 
funeral  processions  on  the  way  to  the  crematory,  where 
the  attendants  were  waiting  to  begin  their  gruesome  task. 
There  were  no  evident  ceremonies  in  advance,  but  rough 
deal  boxes  tied  loosely  with  flimsy  cord  were  brought  up 
and  laid  upon  a  long  stone  platform,  with  here  and  there 
small  recesses  piled  with  faggots.  After  a  light  had  been 
applied  to  the  twigs,  there  was  a  furious  blaze,  the  boxes 
kindling  almost  immediately.    One  of  these  contained  the 

US 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

body  of  a  boy  of  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  when  prodded 
with  an  iron  bar  by  one  of  the  men  it  burst  open  with  a 
loud  noise  and  one  side  fell  away  when  a  leg  protruded. 
Other  gruesome  sights  during  the  stoking  process  sug- 
gested a  business-like  indiiFerence  to  the  treatment  of  the 
corpse,  but  after  an  hour  or  two  the  ashes  were  collected 
and  removed. 

The  bodies  are  not  always  cremated,  for  the  farmer  often 
buries  his  dead  near  his  home,  and  in  previous  times  the 
house  of  the  dead  person  was  given  up  for  a  tomb  in  per- 
petuity. 

Madame  Chrysantheme,  Pierre  Loti's  story,  pictured  a 
condition  of  real  life  which  existed  at  least  in  1893  and 
probably  does  to-day  to  some  degree,  but  I  doubt  if  such 
things  will  be  tolerated  for  long.  While  the  hiring  out  of 
daughters  for  purposes  of  prostitution  has  been  common 
enough,  and  not  attended  hy  disgrace,  the  girl  at  any  time 
is  allowed  to  leave  the  Yoshiwara  and  marry,  without 
losing  caste.  The  rather  queer  relations  that  are  portrayed 
in  the  idyllic  book  of  the  French  novelist  are  not,  I  think, 
in  favour  with  the  Japanese  people.  A  dissipated  Ameri- 
can ne'er-do-well  would  at  one  time  seek  the  society  of  a 
native  female  companion  with  whom  he  would  travel,  or 
perhaps  live  for  some  time;  but  the  experience,  like  that 
of  the  heroine  of  Madame  Butterfly,  was  often  lament- 
able. I  heard  of  more  than  one  tragedy  the  result  of 
desertion,  and  there  are  unfortunately  many  unfeeling  B. 
F.  Pinkertons.  One  man  I  met  was  the  nephew  of  one 
of  the  greatest  bankers  in  the  United  States,  who  had 
always  given  his  father  a  great  deal  of  trouble  because 
of  his  crazy  antics.  He  had  his  Japanese  mistress,  a  girl 
of  low  origin  whom  he  persisted  in  bringing  to  this  coun- 
try, to  the  horror  of  his  family.  He  returned  with  her 
later  and,  much  to  his  credit,  when  he  died  he  left  her 

149 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

well  provided  for.  It  is  no  unusual  thing  for  foreigners  to 
take  native  wives.  The  case  of  a  prominent  English  tea 
merchant  occurs  to  me.  He  married  a  woman  with  whom 
he  lived  for  many  years,  sent  his  two  sons  to  an  English 
University,  afterwards  taking  them  into  partnership  with 
him  and  treating  them  with  the  greatest  devotion.  The 
marriage  of  Lafcadio  Heam  was  also  a  most  happy  one, 
and  his  sons  after  his  death  were  brought  up  to  literary 
careers,  and,  I  learn,  inherit  much  of  their  father's  great 
ability. 

I  found  that  there  was  not  the  same  prejudice  against 
the  irregular  relations  with  women  that  prevails  in  Chris- 
tian countries.  One  day  a  young  Japanese  Prince  showed 
me  the  photographs  of  his  family,  and  after  these  the  pic- 
ture of  a  rather  pretty  young  girl,  and  I  said,  "Is  that  your 
sister?"  "No,"  said  he,  "she  is  my  girl — a  great  friend  of 
my  wife;  she  lives  in  the  palace,  and  plays  koto  with  my 
wife,  very  nice  girl." 

Kyoto  is,  I  think,  the  most  interesting  city  of  all  Japan; 
it  certainly,  next  to  Nara,  is  more  intimately  connected 
with  the  oldest  traditions,  and  has  been  for  centuries  the 
sacred  home  of  many  Mikados.  Here  the  latter  lived  un- 
der the  strict  surveillance  of  the  Shoguns,  a  watchfulness 
so  complete  that  not  only  was  the  Mikado  kept  a  close 
prisoner,  but  no  one  was  permitted  to  look  upon  him. 
The  first  departure  from  this  severity  of  isolation  was 
when  he  received  foreign  envoys  with  uncovered  face 
when  he  was  a  boy  of  sixteen,  some  time  in  the  sixties. 

On  a  hill  back  of  the  city  was  a  delightful  old  hotel  called 
Yami,  which  was,  I  believe,  originally  a  monastery;  it  is 
of  great  interest  because  it  is  surrounded  by  a  number  of 
temples  where  one  constantly  sees  the  native  pilgrims  and 
a  varying  crowd  of  picturesque  people.  I  found  the  Yami 
very  comfortable,  but  here  abounded  the  most  venomous 

150 


VACATIONS  AEROAD 

mosquitos  I  have  ever  known,  and  although  they  were 
not  disease-bearing  insects,  their  poison  was  evidently  the 
concentrated  essence  of  old  war-like  Japan. 

In  no  such  small  space,  except,  perhaps,  Nara,  does  one 
find  such  a  collection  of  exquisite  gardens,  temples,  Torii 
or  arches  in  which  bells  are  suspended,  while  certain  large 
bells  have  towers  of  their  own.  Here  is  the  Yasaki  Pa- 
goda, five  stories  high,  having  a  great  bell  of  the  familiar 
squat  shape  so  characteristic  of  the  country. 

The  Geisha  girl  is  always  spoken  of  as  a  most  agree- 
able creature,  being  trained  from  the  age  of  seven  to  be 
entertaining.  She  certainly  was  not,  so  far  as  we  were 
concerned,  nor  was  she  evidently  what  one  of  my  irreverent 
friends  called  "an  elegant  conversationalist."  I  could  not 
believe,  therefore,  from  what  I  heard,  that  she  combined 
all  the  graces  of  intellectual  femininity.  On  the  contrary, 
she  continually  grinned,  and  with  her  artificially  whitened 
and  enamelled  face  and  painted  lips  was  rather  repellant. 
Her  dances,  which  are  said  by  the  initiated  to  be  symbohc 
and  full  of  poetical  meaning,  seemed  stilted  and  ungrace- 
ful. At  the  "Maple  Club"  in  Shiba  are  supposed  to  be 
the  best  dancers;  certainly  the  costumes  there  were  much 
more  showy  and  elaborate. 

Water  fetes  are  frequent  at  Osaka,  and  in  midsummer 
there  is  a  festival  of  a  religious  nature  with  general  illu- 
mination, signal  fires  being  lit,  as  in  Brittany,  on  every 
hill.  In  the  many  canals  thousands  of  boats,  all  decorated 
with  flowers,  dart  here  and  there,  while  some  more  slowly 
propelled  are  arranged  for  magic  lantern  and  shadow  pic- 
tures. Humorous  slides  in  which  the  fox  is  displayed  are 
the  source  of  great  merriment,  for  he  plays  a  droll  part 
in  Japanese  mythology.  These  pictures  are  not  always 
decent,  but,  nevertheless,  crudely  funny.  In  one  boat, 
which  contained  a  stage,  a  number  of  Geishas  danced,  while 

151 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

others  contained  men  and  women  all  in  ridiculous  dress 
who  indulged  in  harmless  badinage.  Some  of  the  lan- 
terns were  very  odd  and  ingenious.  One  consisted  of  an 
outer  cylinder  of  white  paper  upon  which  conventional 
waves  were  drawn,  while  within  was  another  gaily  painted 
with  fish;  as  the  heat  of  the  candle  arose  and  actuated  a 
species  of  "pin  wheel"  at  the  top,  the  greatly  enlarged 
pictures  of  the  fish  were  shown  in  motion  upon  the  outer 
screen. 

Any  one  who  has  read  Rudyard  Kipling's  account  of 
the  warm  springs  at  Myanoshita  will  appreciate  my  feel- 
ings when  I  took  my  first  walk  over  the  burning  mountain, 
the  thin  crust  of  which  was  likely  to  give  way  and  let  one 
drop  into  fiery  torments.  The  natives  call  it  Ojigoku, 
which  means  "big  Hell."  It  is  certainly  an  appropriate 
name,  for  one  is  in  deadly  fear  of  sinking  into  some  hotter 
region  as  he  incautiously  plants  his  foot,  the  result  being 
a  deep  indentation  in  the  hot  putty-like  surface  and  the 
escape  of  a  jet  of  steam.  It  is  far  more  disagreeable  than 
the  Sulfaterra  near  Naples,  and  I  am  sure  a  more  risky 
place  for  a  promenade. 

I  found  that  the  educational  problem  has  undergone 
great  changes,  but  the  Japanese  themselves  have  solved 
it,  for  though  they  at  first  imported  their  teachers  from 
the  United  States,  they  later  sent  their  young  men  there 
for  training,  and  to  Germany  and  England,  ultimately 
thinning  out  the  foreign  pedagogues  and  gradually  de- 
pending upon  local  instruction.  They  were,  I  am  told, 
disappointed  with  the  American  teachers  sent  them  in  the 
beginning,  for  they  were  by  no  means  the  best  that  could 
be  found,  being  retired  or  decayed  college  professors  for 
the  most  part.  This  tendency  to  do  without  outside  help 
was  undoubtedly  in  accordance  with  the  advice  given  by 
Herbert  Spencer  to  the  Count  Ito:     "Keep  Americans 

152 


'^  <^  J/^  k_  y^t^Ji:^^^ 


£i^<^^-it-'i^  ^ 


BARON    KENTAEO    KANEKO 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

and  Europeans  as  much  as  possible  at  arm's  length  in  any- 
way but  in  the  matter  of  commerce."  He  also  suggested 
that  the  marriage  with  foreigners  be  forbidden:  a  kind  of 
advice,  however,  that  was  not  followed.  Possibly  the  warn- 
ing of  Spencer  had  something  to  do  with  the  dismissal 
of  foreign  teachers. 

My  friend  Baron  Kaneko  Kantaro  is  an  example  of 
the  educated  and  latter-day  progressive.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Harvard,  and  married  a  wife  in  his  own  country 
by  whom  he  had  two  daughters  when  I  last  met  him.  One 
of  these  was  brought  up  in  the  foreign  way,  both  in  the 
matter  of  education  and  dress;  v^^hile  the  other  was  kept 
essentially  a  Japanese,  wearing  the  comfortable  loos'C 
clothing  of  her  people — ^the  hakama  and  kimono.  She 
was  brought  up  rigidly  in  the  Japanese  way  and  the  re- 
sult should  be  interesting.  Baron  Kaneko,  who  was  at 
one  time  Prime  Minister,  and  who  was  one  of  those  who 
prepared  the  Constitution  for  adoption,  came  here  at  the 
time  of  the  Portsmouth  peace  negotiations  which  ended 
the  Russo-Japanese  War,  and  undoubtedly  had  most  to 
do  with  the  arrangement  of  terms  that  was  so  much  in 
favour  of  his  countrymen,  for  he  is  a  skilled,  subtle 
diplomat. 

When  I  returned  home  I  found  on  the  steamer  a  curi- 
ous collection  of  Japanese  emigrants,  many  of  whom  were 
women  and  girls,  bound  for  Canada.  They  were  all  dressed 
in  cast-ofF  "civilised"  finery  of  different  ages  and  patterns, 
and  all  the  dresses  were  ill-fitting ;  it  was  like  some  vulgar 
masquerade.  Even  the  little  Prince  Komatsu,  who  stood 
at  my  side  as  we  looked  from  the  upper  deck  down  into 
the  steerage,  appreciated  the  unfitness  of  it  all,  for  he  said, 
"Very  funny,  is  it  not?"  ,His  own  appearance  in  an  old- 
fashioned  glossy  top  hat,  a  rather  loud  suit  of  slop-shop 
clothes  and  a  wrist  watch  was  really  quite  as  "funny"  and 

153 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

incongruous.  Upon  this  occasion  the  Prince  was  a  per- 
son of  importance,  for  his  fellow  naval  officers  who  were 
on  a  torpedo  boat  escorted  him  well  out  to  sea,  while  the 
service  band  played  Auld  Lang  Syne  in  two-four  time. 

A  year  later  I  spent  my  summer  in  Algeria,  and  ten 
years  after  returned  to  Northern  Africa,  in  the  interim, 
having  visited  Tangier,  which  is  one  of  the  most  primitive 
and  unspoiled  of  Oriental  places. 

Although  my  first  visit  to  Algeria  was  made  several, 
years  after  the  valorous  Tartarin  of  Tarascon  created  fame 
as  a  dompteur  and  all-round  sportsman,  and  in  his  search 
for  lions  killed  one  lonely  donkey  by  mistake,  there  was 
evidently  some  big  game  left,  for  on  our  railroad  journey 
from  Algiers  to  Tunis  the  train  was  stopped  to  give  the 
engine  crew  a  chance  to  blaze  away  at  the  hyenas  who 
prowled  near  the  track,  and  terrified  the  timid  passengers 
by  their  horrible  howling.  I  doubt  if  it  is  now  possible 
to  find  any  wild  animal  further  north  than  El  Kantara  on 
the  edge  of  the  Northern  Sahara  desert,  unless  in  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  Atlas  mountains.  So  great  a  curiosity  is  a 
lion  in  a  country  where  less  than  twenty-five  j'-ears  ago  they 
terrorised  whole  districts,  that  I  heard  of  a  tame  old  beast 
raised  in  a  Marseilles  menagerie  that  had  been  taken  to 
Biskra  and  exhibited  as  a  novelty.  A  few  centimes  were 
demanded  for  the  privilege  of  jumping  over  him,  which 
some  superstitious  women  did  who  wished  to  become  the 
mothers  of  lusty  children. 

Algiers  itself  is  a  rather  dirty  city,  and  to  a  degree 
provincially  French,  the  native  quarter  even  losing  in 
measure  its  identity.  From  the  sea  it  is  superbly  beautiful ; 
tiers  upon  tiers  of  low  white  buildings  forming  superim- 
posed terraces  with  a  semi-tropical  setting  of  the  most 
vivid  green  are  the  first  things  that  greet  the  eye  of  the 
arriving  visitor.     In  the  outlying  districts  one  can  find 

154 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

enough  to  interest  him  for  a  few  days,  and  I  soon  went 
into  the  suburbs,  and  explored  the  cemetery  wherein  is 
the  tomb  of  Sidi  Mohammed  ben-Abder-Kuhmen  bon 
Koberan,  or  the  "Man  of  Two  Tombs,"  whose  burial  in 
two  places,  namely  Kabylia,  where  he  was  originally  in- 
terred, and  Algiers,  where  his  remains  were  later  brought, 
created  great  dismay  among  his  local  adherents.  The  mat- 
ter was  finally  settled  by  the  statement  that  "the  body  of 
the  Saint  had  been  miraculously  doubled."  Here  the 
Moorish  women  come  every  Friday,  and  with  great  dif- 
ficulty I  gained  admission,  and  took  several  photographs. 
One  of  them  shows  the  widows  pouring  water  down  two 
deep  holes  in  the  tomb.  Why  this  is  done  is  a  mysteiy, 
for  I  can  find  no  warrant  for  it  in  the  Mohammedan  re- 
ligion, and  it  suggests  the  burial  ceremonies  of  the  Chi- 
nese, the  funeral  rites  of  the  North  American  Indians, 
or  those  of  other  savage  people.  It  may  perhaps  be  merely 
to  fertilise  the  luxuriant  growth  over  the  graves. 

One  of  the  Algerian  show-places  is  the  famous  Gorge 
of  Chiif  a,  near  Blidah,  and  the  ruisseau  de  singes.  I  took 
my  luncheon  there  one  day,  and  was  entertained  by  at 
least  six  monkeys,  who  came  down  out  of  the  woods,  and 
after  two  or  three,  more  bold  than  the  rest,  had  sat  on 
the  table  and  been  fed  as  cats  at  home  might  be,  they  all 
jumped  off  and  joined  their  fellows,  who  up  to  that  time 
had  kept  themselves  concealed. 

There  is  a  dehcious  dish  that  has  its  origin  in  Mar- 
seilles, and  has  been  celebrated  in  verse  and  song.  I  refer 
to  Bouillehaisse.  It  is  composed  of  several  kinds  of  fish 
cut  up  and  stewed  with  onions,  tomatoes,  saiFron,  and  olive 
oil.  Sometimes  langoust,  which  is  a  species  of  coarse  lob- 
ster, is  added,  and  in  Algiers,  where  it  is  almost  as  popular 
as  in  France,  it  is  certainly  improved  by  the  addition  of 
a  small  clam  found  on  this  coast.     It  is  probable  that 

155 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

this  ancient  dish  was  the  forerunner  of  our  national  chow- 
der, and  that  the  secret  of  its  preparation  was  first  brought 
back  to  the  United  States  by  some  liberated  or  escaped 
American  prisoner  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. It  may  be  had  in  perfection  at  one  or  two  of  the 
little  restaurants  near  the  water  front,  notably  those  of 
Cassar  and  the  Percherie,  but  it  is  not  the  same  thing  at 
any  of  the  restaurants  elsewhere. 

In  1894  travel  in  Algeria  was  usually  safe,  except  in 
some  parts  of  the  Kabayle  region,  where  a  rough  hill  peo- 
ple lived,  in  whose  veins  flowed  the  blood  of  their  war- 
like Roman  ancestors.  These  tribes  had  been  in  frequent 
conflict  with  the  French,  and  tourists  were  advised  to  avoid 
the  mountain  towns.  I,  however,  took  the  precaution  to 
go  in  disguise,  and  with  an  intelligent,  tactful,  and  fear- 
less guide  took  an  extended  trip  without  any  harm. 

Tunis,  which  is  also  a  French  city,  hardly  repays  the 
traveller  for  the  long  and  tiresome  journey  there,  unless 
he  intends  to  take  a  steamer  from  the  Goletta  for  Naples 
via  Sardinia,  which  I  later  did.  Most  of  my  fellow  passen- 
gers were  criminals  who  in  squads  were  liberated  every 
day,  heavily  manacled,  for  a  walk  in  the  fresh  air.  The 
ship  had  seen  long  service  in  the  South  American  trade 
and  was  of  an  obsolete  type  and  very  dirty.  Our  dining 
saloon  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  ship,  and  was  flanked  on 
either  side  by  staterooms,  from  which  strange  sounds  and 
smells  came,  their  occupants  being  seasick  throughout  the 
voyage. 

There  are  only  a  few  things  worth  seeing  in  Tunis,  but 
one  will  find  the  bazaar  full  of  life  and  interest,  containing, 
as  it  does,  strange  merchandise  in  a  building  of  arched  ar- 
cades, and  vendors  of  brilliant  embroideries  and  stuffs, 
perfumes,  food,  fruit  and  even  lizards  and  other  live  ani- 
mals. 

156 


women's    day   in    an    ALGERIAN    CEMETERY 

Photograph  by  the  author 


VACATION'S  ABROAD 

The  palace  of  the  ex- Sultan  Sidi  Ali  is  called  the  Dar 
el  Bey,  but  he  only  goes  there  weekly  to  hold  a  reception. 
It  is  well  worth  seeing  because  of  the  exquisite  tiles  which 
equalled,  if  they  did  not  surpass,  anything  I  saw  in  Anda- 
lusia. I  had  thought  the  Alcazar  in  Seville  and  the  Al- 
hambra  very  beautiful,  but  the  delicate  Arabesque  tracery 
of  the  tiles  in  the  jyar  el  Bey  is  more  intricate  and  lovely. 
The  old-coloured  African  marbles  and  granite  from  Car- 
thage were  much  like  those  I  found  later  in  Capri  and 
were  of  the  same  colours. 

The  decadent  Sultan  and  his  ancestors  at  some  time 
lived  in  great  luxury,  if  one  may  judge  by  these  remains 
of  former  grandeur,  although  the  native  potentate  upon  a 
pension  from  France  is  at  present  a  pitiful  spectacle.  I 
found  that  the  various  European  sovereigns  had  at  various 
times  contributed  to  the  palace,  even  down  to  the  reign 
of  Louis  Philippe,  and  its  walls  were  covered  by  portraits 
of  various  guests,  pieces  of  rare  tapestry,  and  many  in- 
congruous oh  jets  d'art.  One  large  room  was  decorated 
in  the  style  of  Louis  XVI  and  was  vulgar  and  garish  in 
the  extreme,  and  there  were  everywhere  evidences  of  that 
kind  of  barbaric  taste  which  expresses  itself  in  a  love  of 
clocks — there  must  have  been  twenty  of  these  in  one  room, 
of  all  periods  and  kinds,  ticking  away  noisily  on  shelves 
and  furniture. 

Snake  charming  is  as  a  rule  very  unexciting  because 
the  reptiles  are  nearly  always  rendered  harmless  by  the 
extraction  of  their  poison  glands  and  fangs.  There  was 
an  exception  to  this  in  Tunis,  where  I  found  two  dirty- 
looking  "saints"  who  had  probably  come  up  from  the  in- 
terior of  Africa,  and  had  brought  with  them  a  real  cobra 
in  full  possession  of  his  deadly  apparatus.  They  had  soon 
collected  a  crowd,  and  I  took  my  place  in  the  background 
with  my  camera.    The  snake  at  first  was  very  angry,  ex- 

157 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

panding  its  hood,  and  was  prepared  to  strike,  but  in  a 
twinkling  the  taller  of  the  two  men  had  seized  it  back 
of  the  head  and  rapidly  whirled  it  as  he  circled  about, 
and  it,  in  consequence,  came  in  close  proximity  to  the 
faces  of  the  fascinated  but  thoroughly  frightened  by- 
standers. Then,  clasping  the  tail  of  the  reptile,  he  stretched 
it  upon  the  ground  in  front  of  him,  and  stroked  it  softly 
from  head  to  tail.  The  snake  seemed  to  flatten  itself, 
and  made  no  attempt  to  attack  any  one,  even  when  he 
removed  his  hand  from  its  neck,  and  it  was  subsequently 
put  back  in  the  basket  when  there  was  no  resumption  of 
its  pugnacious  attempts.  I  learned  from  a  medical  man 
at  the  hotel  that  he  had  had  sufficient  interest  to  examine 
the  cobra  a  few  days  before  this,  and  not  only  saw  that  it 
had  not  been  tampered  with,  but  that  it  had  killed  a  dog  in 
his  presence  in  a  few  minutes. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  anxious  to  try  a  series  of  experi- 
ments for  the  treatment  of  nervous  diseases  with  snake 
venom.  My  friend,  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell,  had  many  years 
before  investigated  the  toxic  effects  of  the  poison  of  the 
crotalus  horriduSj,  or  durissus  rattlesnake,  and  I  at  length 
found  a  doctor  who  had  a  collection  of  these,  as  well  as 
other  venomous  reptiles,  which  he  kept  in  a  back  store  on 

Fourth  Avenue.    Why  Doctor had  spent  so  much 

time  and  money,  and  had  even  risked  his  life  (for  he  had 
been  bitten  and  nearly  died) ,  I  cannot  say.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  been  a  sort  of  mania  with  him.  For  a  time 
our  attempts  to  collect  venom  were  partially  successful;  I 
prepared  small  hoops  upon  which  cotton  cloth  had  been 
stretched,  and  when  the  snakes  struck  at  these  they  left 
them  saturated  with  a  viscid  yellowish  green  substance 
which  dried  and  could  be  subsequently  removed. 

There  were  reasons,  however,  why  the  collection  should 
be   removed  elsewhere.     Luckily  only  certain  harmless 

158 


THE    AUTHOR    IN    NATIVE    DRESS 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

snakes  had  so  far  escaped  (one  was  killed  in  a  cellar  in 
Twenty-eighth  Street),  but  no  one  could  tell  when  a  real 
rattler  would  wander  off  to  pay  its  respects  to  the  inno- 
cent tenants  of  the  houses  in  the  neighbourhood,  so  I  sug- 
gested that  we  hire  a  laboratory  and  construct  proper 
cages.  I  asked  the  doctor  to  secure  such  a  place.  Upon 
receiving  a  letter,  with  a  key  enclosed,  stating  that  "all 
was  ready,"  I  came  to  New  York  and  unlocked  the  door 
of  the  cheap  tenement  flat  he  had  rented.  There  was  noth- 
ing in  the  kitchen,  which  I  first  entered,  but  in  the  middle 
of  the  inner  room  was  coiled  a  large  rattler,  evidently  ready 
for  business,  who,  had  I  not  been  sufficiently  agile,  would 
have  probably  put  an  end  to  my  experiments  for  good 
and  all.  I  had  begun,  however,  to  lose  heart  for  this  kind 
of  research. 

I  am  afraid  that  Mr.  Robert  Hichens  is  responsible  for 
ruining  the  charm  of  Biskra,  that  curious  little  oasis 
scarcely  more  than  a  mile  long,  which  contains  100,000  date 
palm  trees.  It  lies  at  the  upper  part  of  the  Great  Desert 
of  Sahara,  and  though  for  many  years  it  has  been  visited 
by  invalids,  and  has  been  for  a  long  time  a  French  mili- 
tary post,  it  preserved  up  to  the  publication  of  the  "Garden 
of  Allah"  an  oriental  character  quite  its  own,  and  had 
not  been  advertised  or  exploited.  In  the  early  winter  of 
1908  (to  escape  the  annoyance  of  being  called  as  a  wit- 
ness in  the  unsavoury  Thaw  trial),  we  took  a  Boston 
steamer  by  way  of  the  Azores,  and  after  a  glorious  visit  to 
Punta  Delgado  in  St.  Michaels,  disembarked  at  Algiers 
and  went  to  the  south  by  a  slow  and  crowded  night  train 
that  took  twenty-two  hours  to  reach  Biskra.  On  our  way 
down  we  ran  near  the  wonderful  ancient  city  of  Timgad, 
which  contains  far  more,  and  much  better,  early  Roman 
remains  than  any  of  the  other  North  African  ruined  cities. 
In  the  late  afternoon  we  passed  through  the  gateway  of 

159 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  desert — El  Kantara — and  the  setting  sun  cast  its 
golden-brown  and  deep  red  rays  upon  the  great  hills  that 
formed  the  northern  limit  of  the  desert,  while  a  few  miles 
beyond  was  the  oasis  of  Biskra  with  its  fringe  of  tall  date 
palms  framed  in  the  blue-purple  of  the  early  evening. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  if  one  could  have  examined  the 
belongings  of  each  passenger  there  would  have  been 
found  at  least  one  copy  of  the  "Garden  of  Allah,"  and 
when  we  reached  the  Hotel  Royal  several  of  the  char- 
acters of  the  novel  were  on  liand.  There  were  numerous 
guides  who  claimed  to  be  the  original  Batouch,  and  one 
had  a  card  inscribed  "recommande  par  M.  Hitching."  We 
contented  ourselves  with  a  very  good-looking  young  Arab, 
one  Gatouchi,  whose  modest  claim  was  that  he  was  the 
cousin  of  "the  original  Batouch,"  which  was  a  sufficient 
mark  of  distinction  for  most  people.  We  later  saw  in  the 
dining-room  of  the  hotel  a  rather  wan-looking,  middle- 
aged  Scotch  lady  who  had  married  an  Austrian  nobleman, 
and  was  said  to  be  the  original  Domini^  the  soulful  hero- 
ine of  Mr.  Hichens'  romance,  and  later  we  had  an  inter- 
view with  Larhe,  the  sentimental  and  musical  young  negro 
whose  flute  was  ever  ready  to  charm  the  sympathetic  tour- 
ist for  a  few  centimes. 

Despite  the  novelist's  glowing  pictures,  Biskra  is  dis- 
appointing, but  one  can  well  understand  its  former  attrac- 
tions. It  consists  of  a  rich  and  fertile  oval  of  territory, 
which  is  irrigated  by  ditches  full  of  muddy  water  in  part 
supplied  by  artesian  wells,  and  in  part  diverted  from  the 
small  river.  The  clearly  French  town  with  its  fort,  cathe- 
dral and  public  buildings  touches  elbows  with  the  native 
quarter,  and  one  sees  officers  taking  their  aperitif  at  the 
cafes.  At  the  southern  end  of  the  town  is  old  Biskra,  which 
is  wholly  occupied  by  natives  who  are  rather  a  bad  lot; 
it  is  not  safe  to  visit  this  place  by  night. 

160 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

The  Garden  of  Allah  contains  a  handsome  chateau  in 
the  Arabic  style,  and  a  great  deal  of  beautiful  vegetation. 
The  view  of  the  upper  part  of  the  desert  from  the  eastern 
side  is  very  extensive  and  satisfying,  and  one  can  well 
understand  the  influences  that  created  the  amatory  rhapso- 
dies of  Dominie  and  the  monk  Androvsky. 

The  souk^  or  market,  and  the  street  of  the  ouled  nails 
attract  the  visitor  at  once.  The  former  differs  but  little 
from  other  eastern  places  of  the  kind,  but  one  is  imme- 
diately interested  in  the  arrivals  from  abroad,  who  bring 
a  collection  of  strange  wares.  There  were  large  piles  of 
dried  locusts,  which  have  a  scriptural  suggestion,  and  even 
coarse  wild  honey  may  be  purchased  in  another  locality. 
These  were  said  to  be  palatable,  but  although  I  have  eaten 
snakes  and  various  other  strange  things  in  my  day  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  I  could  not  bring  myself 
even  to  try  them. 

There  is  a  short  street  in  Biskra  through  which  every 
visitor  walks  at  least  once  during  his  stay.  Here  live 
the  women  of  the  town,  the  ouled  nails,  as  they  are  called, 
who  sit  on  their  doorsteps  and  ogle  every  male  passerby. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  greater  variety  of 
ugliness,  for  the  collection  of  sirens  includes  negroes,  no- 
mads and  other  equally  repulsive  specimens  varying  from 
sixteen  to  seventy  years  of  age.  Some  are  toothless,  others 
blind  from  ophthalmia,  or  presenting  evidences  of  chronic 
disease.  Many  of  the  best  looking  are  decorated  with 
perforated  twenty-franc  gold  pieces,  which  they  string 
about  their  heads  and  necks,  or  entwine  in  their  unwashed 
hair,  and  several  horrible  murders  for  the  purpose  of  rob- 
bery have  taken  place  from  time  to  time  in  which  they 
were  the  victims.  A  year  before  our  visit  the  body  of 
one  of  the  best  known  was  found  with  a  cut  throat.  Her 
Maltese  lover  had  escaped,  but  was  later  captured,  half- 

161 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

starved  in  the  desert.  His  pockets  were  crammed  with 
the  golden  loot  from  his  mistress,  which  was  of  little  use 
to  him,  however.  So  serious  has  been  this  withdrawal  of 
gold  from  circulation  for  purposes  of  personal  decora- 
tion, that  the  French  authorities  have  entirely  substituted 
bank  notes  and  silver  in  these  native  towns. 

Just  outside  of  the  oasis  is  the  apparently  limitless  brown 
desert,  and  to  the  east  and  northeast  of  Biskra  is  a  streak 
of  waste  land  where  we  saw  many  camels  feeding  upon  a 
species  of  what  looks  like  sage  brush,  while  here  and  there 
an  attempt  is  made  to  raise  scanty  crops.  Various  small 
mud  villages  occupy  nearby  oases,  one  being  at  Chetmah, 
where  we  saw  a  pretended  wedding,  evidently  arranged 
for  tourists ;  and  twelve  miles  away  is  Sidi-Okba,  which  is 
perhaps  the  most  distinctly  Eastern  place  I  have  ever 
known,  although  its  privacy  and  exclusiveness  have  been 
broken  into,  the  entering  wedge  being  a  French  barber  of 
Biskra,  who  has  taken  a  house  where  he  gives  breakfasts 
to  tourists.  Here,  in  a  garden  with  two  or  three  sickly 
trees  and  a  muddy  gutter  which  was  referred  to  by  him  as 
"la  ruisseau,"  we  ate  an  excellent  meal  which  the  man  had 
brought  out  in  his  pony  cart.  The  place  was  closed  an 
hour  or  so  after  we  left,  and  thereafter  remained  in  the 
keeping  of  M 's  Arab  wife. 

Upon  this  occasion  our  party  consisted  of  Colonel  Rus- 
sell, a  retired  United  States  army  officer,  and  Frederick 
Williams,  an  Englishman  whom,  strange  to  say,  I  had  met 
in  New  York  fifteen  years  before,  when  he  consulted  me 
professionally.  My  astonishment  was  great  when  he  came 
up  and  wished  me  "good  morning"  at  the  lonely  railroad 
station  of  Batna  where  we  had  just  breakfasted. 

The  sights  in  the  small  market  place  of  this  ancient  town 
were  different  from  those  to  be  found  elsewhere,  and 
were  doubtless  the  survival  of  early  customs  that  had  not 

162 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

been  changed  or  modernised,  and  the  indifference  of  the 
natives  made  it  all  the  more  interesting.  The  jeweller 
continued  to  work  his  bellows,  these  consisting  of  the  in- 
flated skins  of  two  goats,  which  were  made  to  contract 
and  expand  by  vigorous  kicking.  The  dentist  sat  ready 
for  a  patient,  while  he  passed  his  thin  hand  caressingly 
over  a  pile,  two  or  three  feet  high,  of  human  teeth  that 
he  had  extracted  from  thousands  of  patients,  while  the 
dermatologist  covered  a  little  boy's  head  with  hot  liquid 
tar,  the  child  meanwhile  behaving  just  as  any  I  know 
would,  and  roaring  like  mad. 

Sidi-Okba  contains  the  tomb  of  one  of  the  most  revered 
of  Moslem  saints,  a  great  warrior  who  in  the  sixtieth  year 
of  the  Hejira  conquered  the  whole  of  Northern  Africa, 
and,  it  is  said  by  Playfair,  "spurred  his  horse  into  the 
Atlantic,  and  declared  that  only  such  a  barrier  could  pre- 
vent him  from  forcing  every  nation  beyond  it  who  knew 
not  God  to  worship  Him  or  die." 

Our  visit  to  the  mosque  was  not  a  welcome  one,  although 
we  took  off  our  shoes  and  behaved  as  properly  as  we  knew 
how.  There  were  angry  glances,  and  two  or  three  old 
men  who  were  muttering  their  prayers  scowled  in  a  way 
that  suggested  what  must  have  been  our  fate  were  the 
French  control  less  perfect.  Some  mosques  elsewhere  are 
absolutely  inaccessible  to  the  Christians ;  in  Tangiers  I  be- 
lieve that  an  intruder  would  be  badly  maltreated  if  he  were 
to  force  an  entrance,  so  I  took  no  risks  there  at  a  previous 
visit. 

In  passing  a  low  building  we  heard  the  familiar  sing- 
song hum  that  denotes  the  school  for  little  children  the 
world  over.  The  teacher,  a  mild-looking  man,  sat  in  the 
centre  surrounded  by  about  a  dozen  little  boys,  who  were 
squatted  upon  the  hard  earthen  floor.  Each  had  a  board 
of  palm  wood  upon  which  were  inscribed  extracts  from 

163 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  Koran^  and  the  master  was  armed  with  a  long  wand 
with  which  he  could  reach  the  furthermost  boy  when  he 
saw  any  indication  of  flagging  attention.  Wishing  to  get 
possession  of  one  of  the  "slates,"  I  sent  Gatouchi  to  buy 
it  from  a  scholar,  but  ten  minutes  after  we  were  stopped 
by  a  messenger  from  the  teacher,  who  forced  the  five-franc 
piece  into  my  hand  and  took  away  the  slate.  I  suppose 
the  former  realised  that  the  Christian  dog  had  no  right 
to  such  a  holy  thing. 

Whether  there  is  now  any  native  disaiFection  because 
of  the  war  I  do  not  know,  but  there  was  little  danger  to 
outsiders  a  few  years  ago  except  from  the  Nomads,  who 
are  really  Arabian  tramps  for  the  most  part,  and  who 
move  collectively  about  the  country,  bent  upon  many  kinds 
of  mischief.  Colonel  Richardson  Cox,  of  Bath,  England, 
however,  told  me  that  he  had  for  years  ridden  over  the 
entire  Algerian  country  and  a  great  deal  of  the  upper 
desert  with  but  one  attendant,  and  he  never  was  molested. 

Up  to  the  commencement  of  the  present  war  France  had 
little  to  fear  from  the  Arab  chiefs,  who  were  her  depend- 
ents. Most  of  them  were  well  pensioned,  and  those  people 
who  have  been  in  Biskra  must  remember  Ben  Ali  and  his 
cousin,  two  good-looking  young  men  who  frequented  the 
little  casino  and  the  hotels,  and  who  were  not  averse  to  a 
flirtation  with  a  silly  girl  or  two.  These  wards  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, who  have  local  influence  with  the  tribes,  are  given 
an  occasional  trip  to  Paris,  with  a  spree,  and  their  uncle, 
the  Kaid,  is  financially  vv^ell  looked  after. 

Ben  Ali  is  a  good  horseman,  of  course,  and  his  great 
pleasure  was  to  get  romantic  young  women  to  accom- 
pany him  in  his  rides  into  the  desert.  He,  however,  at 
least  once,  to  my  knowledge,  proposed  marriage  to  an 
infatuated  gii'l;  had  she  agreed,  it  would,  of  course,  have 
meant  her  life  confinement  in  a  harem.     She  was  there- 

164 


HAMID 

Photograph  by  the  author 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

fore  with  much  secrecy  taken  quietly  out  of  the  dangerous 
zone. 

From  our  windows  every  morning  we  saw  the  arrival 
of  the  caravans  that  came  from  Tougurt  or  even  from 
Timbuctoo.  The  camels  carried  loads  of  at  least  four 
hundred  pounds,  chiefly  of  dates  and  grain,  but  they  some- 
times bring  ivory  and  other  central  African  products.  At 
night  the  animals  are  placed  in  a  large  square  yard,  where 
they  scream  and  fight  with  each  other,  and  make  those 
noises  that  only  a  camel  can. 

The  local  pharmacist  at  Biskra  showed,  and  after- 
ward presented  me  with  a  huge  black  scorpion  preserved 
in  a  bottle  of  alcohol,  whose  sting,  he  said,  had  caused  the 
death  of  a  native  woman.  The  attack  of  the  scorpion  is 
not  ordinarily  fatal,  but  always  exceedingly  painful,  and 
in  this  case  it  is  probable  that  the  woman  was  in  delicate 
health.  I  have  seen  cases  of  poisoning  both  by  the  cen- 
tipede and  tarantula  in  Mexico  and  Southern  California 
without  serious  consequences,  but  possibly  the  gigas,  a 
large  tropical  variety  of  the  former,  can  inflict  a  mortal 
wound,  and  I  once  had  rather  a  scare  in  being  obliged  to 
walk,  without  foot  covering  of  any  kind,  through  the  cor- 
ridor of  a  South  American  hotel  in  which  scorpions  were 
found  daily. 

One  of  our  native  friends  in  Biskra  was  a  little  black  boy 
of  six,  named  Hamid,  whose  heart  I  won  with  a  cigar  that 
had  been  cast  aside,  which  he  picked  up  and  smoked  to 
the  bitter  end.  He  afterward  followed  us  wherever  we 
went,  to  the  jealous  disgust  of  Gatouchi,  and  later  him- 
self became  a  devoted  and  attached  guide.  He  spoke  only 
a  few  words  of  bad  French,  but  with  pantomime  we  got 
along  very  well.  My  wife  was  shocked  by  his  evident 
sufl'ering  from  the  cold  for,  with  the  exception  of  a  long 
yellow  gown  of  the  thinnest  cotton  and  a  rakish  fez,  he  was 

;165 


KECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

as  naked  as  the  day  he  was  born ;  we  took  him  to  the  market 
where  they  sold  clothes,  but  could  not  buy  anything,  for 
there  is  a  native  custom  that  the  negroes  can  only  wear 
cast-ofF  things  of  the  Arabs,  so  the  pile  of  gay-coloui*ed 
haiks  and  burnouses  upon  which  the  boy  had  feasted  his 
eyes  with  such  longing  was  not  to  become  his.  We  com- 
forted him,  however,  by  the  present  of  a  flageolet  which 
the  other  ragamuffins  fought  for,  but  which  for  a  time  he 
pluckily  retained. 

The  dancing  at  the  Moorish  cafes  is  extremely  poor,  and 
the  active  pen  of  Hichens  evidently  sketched  happenings 
that  were  purely  imaginary.  I  have,  upon  an  earlier  oc- 
casion, seen  real  native  dancing  in  a  small  northern  Al- 
gerian town  which  was  far  more  interesting,  and  in  every 
way  the  real  thing.  So,  too,  the  efforts  of  local  and  imi- 
tation Assouai  were  not  very  amusing.  Our  guide  had 
told  us  that  as  a  great  favour  the  holy  man  would,  for  the 
small  consideration  of  five  francs  each,  be  persuaded  to  give 
an  exhibition.  As  the  audience  consisted  of  only  Colonel 
Russell  and  myself,  there  was  a  great  delay,  and  finally  a 
feeble  performance  was  given  which  consisted  in  the  pranc- 
ing of  several  white-clad  members  of  the  company  about 
the  room,  each  one  of  whom  held  a  piece  of  lighted  paper 
inside  their  clothing,  which  they  carefully  prevented  from 
burning  their  bodies  or  their  robes. 

Learning  that  the  proprietor  spoke  some  English,  I 
called  him  up  and  found  that  he  had  been  in  the  United 
States;  when  I  asked  him  where,  he  replied,  "New  York, 
Chic,  Phillelphy,  Coney  Isla, — Hell,  Evaware."  I  found 
out  that  he  and  many  of  the  men  of  the  village  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  going  over  yearly,  with  camels  and  proper- 
ties, to  appear  with  Barnum  and  Bailey's  circus. 

The  country  outside  of  Biskra,  beyond  the  hot  springs 
of  El  Hammam  Salahin,  or  the  hills  near  El  Kantara, 

166 


iV^ACATIONS  ABROAD 

which  is  56  miles  distant,  is  full  of  big  game.  Every  day 
the  huge  wild  goat  known  as  the  Moufflon  was  brought 
into  the  market  place  or  to  the  local  butcher,  and  boar 
hunting  was  an  exciting  sport  in  the  neighbourhood.  The 
chase,  however,  is  not  without  its  dangers,  and  a  few 
weeks  before  our  visit  two  Englishmen  had  ventured  into 
a  new  region,  within  an  hour's  ride.  They  did  not  return 
towards  night  and  a  search  party  was  sent  to  look  for  them. 
They  were  found  with  their  bodies  covered  with  wounds, 
but  they  both  slowly  recovered.  They  had  been  attacked, 
robbed,  and  left  to  die  by  a  band  of  nomads,  three  of  whom 
they  killed. 

Constantine,  which  is  about  two  hundred  kilometres 
from  Biskra,  has,  by  many  writers,  been  called  the  most 
beautiful  spot  on  earth,  and  it  certainly  is  most  impres- 
sive, both  because  of  its  extraordinary  situation,  and  its 
long  and  dramatic  history.  It  occupies  a  grand  plateau, 
in  some  places  one  thousand  feet  above  the  River  Roummel, 
which  runs  through  the  great  ravine  that  entirely  encir- 
cles the  city.  It  is  filled  with  ancient  remains  and  great 
buildings;  such,  for  instance,  as  the  Kasba,  which  was 
originally  built  by  the  Romans  and  contains  huge  cisterns 
and  granaries  which  were  in  use  when  the  French  came 
into  possession  of  the  Arab  stronghold.  I  saw  the  cliffs 
from  which  the  besieged  populace  tried  to  escape  by  letting 
themselves  down  by  means  of  ropes.  When  these  broke, 
hundreds  fell  to  the  rocks  below  and  were  mangled  and 
killed.  I  walked  through  the  great  gorge,  taking  the  path 
on  the  right-hand  side,  and  in  this  way  got  the  best  view 
of  the  town,  the  ravine  itself,  the  Hamma,  or  hot  baths, 
the  Roman  villas,  and  the  distant  fields,  which  were  in  a 
high  state  of  cultivation. 

The  streets  are,  I  think,  more  busy  than  those  of  Algiers 
or  any  other  town  of  the  province,  and  in  the  native  quar- 

167 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ter  we  spent  much  time.  Here  were  the  little  coffee  houses, 
the  merchants  of  slippers,  and  the  gamblers  who  swindled 
the  boys  by  means  of  a  wheel  and  arrow.  In  the  native 
market,  the  Rabbai  es  Souf,  were  the  most  delicious  fruits 
and  vegetables,  and  the  money-changers  sat  stolidly  before 
little  piles  of  green  and  corroded  copper  coin. 

Upon  one  occasion,  about  twenty  years  ago,  I  went 
with  two  friends  from  Philadelphia  to  see  a  native  dance. 
We  passed  through  a  beautiful  garden  filled  with  fig  trees 
and  hibiscus  bushes,  and  entered  a  large  Moorish  house. 
On  the  first  floor  were  a  number  of  Arabs,  some  of  them 
smoking  kef,  who  looked  at  us  suspiciously,  but,  as  they 
knew  the  guide,  allowed  us  to  go  upstairs.  Here  we  found 
a  room  full  of  gilding  and  showy  wall  hangings  and  gay 
rugs.  Upon  a  dais  sat  three  musicians,  one  of  whom  was 
a  black  who  beat  a  lap  drum  with  his  fingers,  while  his 
companions  played  the  African  oboe  and  a  violin.  When 
the  two  dancers  had  finished  I  suggested  to  my  friends 
that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  get  a  photograph,  and 

C offered  to  touch  off  the  flash  powder  wdth  his  cigar 

while  I  snapped  the  shutter.  The  explosion  of  the  mag- 
nesium had  an  effect  which  was  instantaneous,  for  there 
was  a  loud  shriek;  we  rushed  pell-mell  down  the  stairs 
and  out,  pursued  by  the  orchestra  and  some  of  the  Arabs 
in  the  lower  room,  but  most  of  them  were  too  dazed  by 
the  drug  to  leave  their  comfortable  cushions.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  we  only  felt  safe  when  we  were  out  of  the  Arab 
quarter,  and  in  our  own  rooms  at  the  hotel. 

My  friend  Williams  was  always  a  carefully  dressed 
and  neat  Englishman,  and  was  often  late  in  the  morning 
because  he  could  not  make  his  toilet  properly  in  some  out- 
of-the-way  place.  In  Constantine  one  morning  I  was 
startled  by  a  message  to  the  effect  that  he  could  not  leave 
his  room.    As  he  had  left  us  the  night  before  in  good  health 

168 


VACATIONS  ABROAD 

and  spirits,  I  was  somewhat  anxious,  and  went  as  quickly 
as  possible  to  his  apartment.  There  I  found  him  fully- 
dressed  with  the  exception  of  his  feet.  He  mutely  held 
out  to  me  a  pair  of  abominable  shoes,  just  the  kind  that 
are  worn  by  French  commercial  travellers.  They  were 
contorted  and  bulging,  to  accommodate  pedal  lumps  of 
various  kinds,  and  had  light  cloth  tops  and  pearl  buttons. 
The  storm  then  broke,  and  never  have  I  seen  a  man  so 
purple  or  boisterous.  Some  one  had  taken  his  expensive 
and  almost  new  Bond  Street  shoes  by  mistake — and,  be- 
sides, the  substitutes  were  three  sizes  too  small.  After 
an  hour  spent  in  getting  the  landlord  to  institute  a  search, 
and  after  another  hour  spent  in  buying  an  equally  villain- 
ous pair  in  the  town,  Williams  managed  to  get  out,  and 
I  left  him  hunting  for  the  robber,  and  inspecting  the  foot- 
gear of  every  Frenchman  in  Constantine. 

It  is  only  thirty-six  miles  from  Gibraltar,  with  its  smart 
English  soldiers  and  gay  life,  to  Tangiers,  which  is  the 
most  oriental  town  in  North  Africa.  No  place  has  pre- 
served its  native  habits  and  customs  as  has  this;  because 
there  has  not  been  any  real  protectorate  or  stable  govern- 
ment, there  has  been  no  adoption  of  foreign  ways.  In 
fact,  there  are  no  permanent  foreign  residents  except  the 
Ministers  and  Consuls  with  their  staffs,  and  scum  of  the 
white  race,  ex-convicts,  fugitives  from  justice,  and  bad 
characters  of  all  nations.  The  very  impossibility  of  any 
of  the  great  powers  coming  to  an  agreement,  so  far,  has 
given  the  Moroccan  a  sort  of  independence,  and  the  con- 
tinuation of  a  rotten  government;  with  all  this  there  is 
much  disorder  and  injustice  in  the  administration  of  the 
old  local  laws,  which  includes  the  lex  talionis,  so  that  we 
see  everywhere  one-handed,  noseless  and  blind  men,  for- 
eign protest  being  of  no  avail. 

It  was  after  the  time  of  my  visit  that  Perdicaris,  the 

169 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

former  American  Consul,  was  kidnapped  by  Raizuli,  the 
famous  bandit,  and  even  the  Kaid  McLean,  who  was  the 
bandit's  friend,  had  been  abducted.  I  was  warned  not  to 
go  into  the  country,  but  nevertheless  took  my  chances  and 
had  a  delightful  donkey  ride  one  afternoon  without  any 
mishap  whatever.  The  native  houses  in  the  interior  are 
simply  mud-built  hovels,  but  at  a  village  about  three  miles 
from  Tangiers,  after  our  approach  had  been  sounded  by 
the  huge  storks  who  build  their  nests  on  the  roofs,  we 
were  welcomed  by  the  caretaker  to  a  rather  pretentious 
Moorish  house,  which  was  of  the  conventional  plan,  the 
patios  with  the  fountain  being  the  chief  attraction.  In 
the  city  itself  one  did  not  feel  exactly  safe,  for  there  were 
always  bullies  hanging  around  outside  the  cafes,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  young  Bensusan,  our  Gibraltar  guide,  I  think 
I  should  have  been  stabbed  upon  one  occasion  by  a  skulk- 
ing Arab.  It  is  not  often  that  many  RifFs,  who  are  the 
wild  coast  tribesmen,  find  their  way  into  Tangiers,  but 
one  day  I  incurred  the  hostile  inspection  of  one  of  these 
ruffians,  who  was  at  least  six  feet  three  inches  tall,  and 
his  loose  wild  hair  added  several  more  inches  to  his  stature. 
He  was  fully  armed  and  of  course  I  had  nothing. 

The  administration  of  justice  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
Kaid,  arbitrary  and  cruel  sentences  being  imposed.  In 
fact,  it  is  only  necessary  for  a  person  with  influence  to 
wink  at  the  judge,  or  tender  a  suitable  bribe,  to  have  any 
one  committed  to  the  prison.  From  this  he  may  not 
emerge  alive,  for  the  inmates  are  wholly  dependent  upon 
their  friends  for  food,  so  if  they  have  none  they  starve 
and  their  bodies  find  their  way  to  the  sea.  I  saw  the  poor 
wretches  inside,  some  of  whom  dragged  themselves  to  the 
bars  to  have  me  buy  their  baskets.  Others  could  not  even 
rise  from  the  floor,  and  presented  all  the  evidences  of  ad- 
vanced starvation. 

170 


K 

VACATIONS  ABROAD 

The  most  important  religious  dignitary  is  the  Sherifa, 
who  had  some  years  ago  married  an  English  woman  who 
was  an  estimable  lady  and  had  great  influence  over  her 
master^  but  later  when  he  became  weak  and  senile  his  chil- 
dren by  another  woman  sought  to  accomplish  her  death 
by  poison.  They  were  unsuccessful  and  I  believe  she  left 
the  country. 

The  followers  of  the  Assouai,  a  sect  with  headquarters 
at  Fez,  are  much  more  in  earnest  in  Tangiers  than  else- 
where. Their  existence  as  a  religious  body  is  dependent 
upon  the  extent  of  their  self -mutilation  and  suffering,  and 
this  resembles  in  measure  the  performances  of  the  whirling 
dervishes  in  the  far  East.  They  come  in  crowds  into 
the  city,  draggled  and  torn  and  in  a  condition  of  fanatical 
excitement.  Some  fall  in  epileptic  or  hysterical  fits  by  the 
roadside,  and  they  proceed  to  injure  themselves,  often 
trying  to  dash  their  heads  against  walls  or  thrusting  sharp 
instruments  into  their  bodies.  I  had  a  chance  to  see  two  or 
three  of  these  people  detached  from  the  main  body,  who 
worked  themselves  into  a  state  of  auto-suggestion  and 
religious  frenzy,  so  that  their  skin  everywhere  became  in- 
sensitive ;  then  taking  long  needles  and  a  small  sharp  dag- 
ger, they  passed  them  through  the  cheek,  there  being  no 
hemorrhage  whatever.  In  some  hysterics  at  home  this 
bloodlessness  and  analgesia  of  the  skin  is  found. 

The  fakirs  at  Tangiers  took  a  long,  green  and  appar- 
ently venomous  snake  from  their  goatskin  bag,  which  they 
allowed  to  bite  the  tongue ;  here,  too,  there  was  no  indica- 
tion of  pain. 

After  a  happy  week  in  Tangiers,  I  took  a  packet  boat 
which  had  formerly  been  the  steam  yacht  Giralda^  the 
property  of  my  old  friend,  the  late  Harry  McCalmont  of 
London,  who  sold  it  to  the  Spanish  Government  during 
the  Spanish- American  war. 

171 


CHAPTER   XI 

CAPRI 

The  Palaces  of  Tiberius — Coleman  the  Artist — The  Villa  Castello 
and  Its  Beauties — Numidian  Marbles — A  Midnight  Adventure — 
The  Earthquake  at  Ischia — ^An  Interrupted  Concert — ^Axel 
Munthe  and  the  Cholera  of  1884 — Capri  Society — Native  Cruelty 
to  A.nimals — Quail  Trapping — Dolce  far  Niente — The  Capri 
Boats — Elihu  Vedder — Capri  Wine — Taxes  and  Monopolies — 
The  Saint  Serafino  di  Dio — Festas — Dr.  Cerio — Marion  Craw- 
ford— ^Neapolitan  Cab  Drivers — A  Sand  Storm. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  the  Emperor  Tiberius,  worn  out 
and  jaded  with  the  cares  of  his  office  and  life  in  Home, 
settled  upon  the  Island  of  Capri  as  a  fitting  place  in  which 
to  end  his  days,  or  that  he  built  so  many  grand  palaces. 
Among  these  was  the  Temple  Jovis,  on  the  highest  cliffs 
which  were  lashed  at  their  feet  by  the  angry  sea  through 
which  Ulysses  passed  after  he  had  evaded  the  temptations 
of  the  Sirens,  who  would  lure  him  to  the  caves  near  the 
present  Piccolo  Marina.  He  built  others  near  Damaceuta 
over  the  Blue  Grotto,  and  on  the  edge  of  the  sea,  and  one 
can  look  down  any  clear  day  and  see  the  solid  walls  of  the 
Palazza  a  Mare  and  baths  of  Tiberius  beneath  the  surface 
of  the  blue  Mediterranean. 

But  a  few  ruins  remain  to-day  of  all  this  magnificence, 
and  the  lovely  island  which  is  less  than  four  miles  long 
and  two  miles  wide  is  still  as  beautiful  as  ever.  Vesuvius, 
which  he  looked  upon  every  day  as  I  did  for  several  years, 
still  changes  its  moods  and  has  altered  but  little  in  the  past 

112 


CHARLES    CARYL    COLEMAN,    ESQ. 


CAPRI 

two  thousand  years.  Before  and  since  his  time  Capri  has 
been  occupied  by  the  rough  men  of  the  stone  age,  whose 
cave  beneath  Monte  Solaro  exists,  and  where  primitive  in- 
struments were  found  a  few  years  ago,  by  the  followers  of 
Mithras,  the  Sun  God,  whose  altar  may  be  visited  in  an- 
other part  of  the  island,  and  by  Greeks  and  Romans;  it 
has  even  been  in  possession  of  the  French,  and  the  Eng- 
lish under  Sir  Richard  Church  and  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  and 
to-day  is  overrun  by  ISTeapolitans  and  German  tourists — 
or  at  least  was  by  the  latter  two  years  ago. 

I  first  went  to  the  island  in  1894  at  the  invitation  of 
Charles  Coleman,  the  distinguished  American  artist,  and 
now  the  "oldest  resident."  He  had  fought  bravely  in  the 
Civil  War,  had  studied  art  in  TsTew  York  and  Rome,  and 
was  an  intimate  of  the  late  Frank  Millet,  the  painter,  who 
was  lost  on  the  Titanic^  as  well  as  Elihu  Vedder,  a  recent 
addition  to  the  Capri  Colony.  Coleman  built  the  beautiful 
Villa  Narcissus,  a  store-house  of  artistic  things,  and  found 
for  me  a  superb  house  and  garden — the  Villa  Castello — 
near  his  own  place.  It  had  originally  been  the  residence 
of  an  early  Catholic  Bishop,  and  was  at  least  eight  hun- 
dred years  old,  the  foundation  walls  being  formed  of  huge 
blocks  of  pink  granite.  These  were  undoubtedly  a  part 
of  the  great  Cyclopean  wall  built  probably  by  the  Cumans. 
It  had  been  occupied  for  forty  years  by  an  English  artist 
named  Anderson.  He  and  Dr.  Cerio,  the  resident  physi- 
cian, had  in  the  early  days  bought  up  all  the  pieces  of  an- 
tique marble  they  could  find,  and  when  I  took  the  house 
the  floors  of  the  principal  rooms  were  paved  with  these 
exquisite  materials,  just  as  they  were  in  the  Tiberian  villas. 

The  rooms  were  lofty,  and  always  full  of  fresh  air,  while 
in  front  was  a  large  terrace  that  overlooked  the  entire 
bay  of  Naples  and  the  villages  at  the  base  of  Vesuvius; 
Sorrento,  Massa,  and  the  mainland,  as  well  as  the  island 

173 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

of  Ischia,  could  be  seen,  while  on  the  north  the  beetling 
grey  crags  of  Monte  Solaro  were  ever  beautiful  under  dif- 
ferent effects  of  light  and  shade.  My  courtyard  contained 
an  enormous  ancient  oil  vase  in  which  at  one  time  had  been 
planted  an  oleander  that  had  attained  the  proportions  of 
a  small  tree,  and  was  often  covered  with  exquisite  pink 
blossoms;  there  was  also  a  clump  of  feathery  bamboo. 
The  garden  back  of  the  house  was  nearly  two  acres  in 
extent,  and  there  grew  oranges  and  lemons,  figs,  mulber- 
ries, and  huge  umbrella  pines ;  while  grape  and  other  vines 
trailed  over  ancient  pergolas.  After  I  left,  an  entire  Ro- 
man room  with  frescoes  in  a  perfect  state  was  opened  up 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Jerome,  the  new  tenant,  and  I  myself 
often  picked  up  fragments  of  Greek  glass,  once  finding  a 
terra-cotta  mask  of  Medusa. 

I  slept  in  a  room  off  the  studio ;  at  the  other  end  was  a 
tower  with  a  steep  flight  of  stone  stairs  leading  to  the 
road  beneath.  Thoroughly  tired  out  one  night,  I  had  gone 
to  bed,  and  must  have  slept  soundly  for  several  hours  when 
I  awoke  to  find  a  man's  face  very  close  to  mine,  and  the 
unmistakable  smell  of  the  local  bad  cigarettes,  mingled 
with  the  fumes  of  stale  wine.  Half  asleep,  I  quickly  got 
to  my  feet  and  seizing  the  intruder  by  both  shoulders 
marched  him  across  the  room,  down  the  tower  steps,  and 
out  into  the  road,  he  making  no  resistance  whatever.  I 
was  unarmed,  bare-footed,  and  only  in  my  pyjamas,  and 
there  was  no  way  of  notifying  others.  It  was  a  rather 
gruesome  experience,  and  probably  signalled  the  appear- 
ance of  one  of  the  petty  thieves  that  infest  Naples. 

From  my  front  windows  and  terrace  I  could  see  Ischia, 
twenty  miles  away.  This  island  contains  a  slumbering  or 
extinct  volcano  and,  unlike  Capri,  is  subject  to  earth- 
quakes. One  terrible  shock  occurred  some  time  before 
my  visit,  and  as  there  are  during  the  summer  time  a  great 

174 


CAPRI 

many  people  there  who  go  to  take  the  cure,  the  loss  of 
life  was  enormous.  At  one  hotel  a  concert  was  being  given 
before  a  large  audience.  Not  only  did  the  floor  sink,  but 
an  eye  witness  told  me  of  the  disappearance  through  the 
stage  of  the  grand  piano,  performer  and  all,  into  a  great 
crevasse. 

Capri  is  said  to  be  exempt  from  these  visitations,  and 
in  the  memory  of  man  there  has  been  no  terro-moto. 

The  Villa  Castelio  was  in  the  centre  of  the  island  next 
to  the  infant  school  of  Santa  Theresa,  which  was  a  great 
annoyance,  as  the  young  Capresi  looked  over  the  garden 
wall,  and  the  priests,  who  were  continuously  extortionate, 
were  ever  insisting  upon  non-existent  property  rights. 
When  upon  one  occasion  they  built  a  small  house  squarely 
in  front  of  the  entrance  to  the  carriage  drive,  I  brought 
them  to  their  senses  by  the  threat  that  I  would  go  to  the 
American  Ambassador  and  make  it  an  international  affair. 

Back  of  the  place  was  the  Castiglione,  a  venerable  castle, 
and  south  of  the  town  was  the  beautiful  San  Michele. 
A  steep,  narrow  road  took  one  to  Anacapri,  a  quaint,  un- 
spoiled village  at  the  northern  end  of  the  island.  Here, 
beneath  a  hill  upon  which  the  corsair  Barbarossa  built  a 
castle  in  the  early  sixteenth  century,  lived  Dr.  Axel  Mun- 
the,  an  extremely  cultivated  Swedish  physician,  but  withal 
somewhat  eccentric.  During  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1884 
he  arrived  in  Naples  from  Sweden,  his  luggage  consist- 
ing only  of  a  small  portmanteau  with  a  few  clothes  and 
medicines.  He  actually  lived  in  the  midst  of  the  populace 
that  died  at  the  rate  of  one  thousand  a  day.  Here  he 
remained,  doing  magnificent  work,  and  when  the  scourge 
was  over  moved  over  to  Capri  and  built  a  villa.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  that  he  was  simply  worshipped  by  all  the  Itali- 
ans of  the  lower  class,  and  his  word  with  them  was  law. 
I  can  never  forget  that  in  1902,  more  dead  than  alive, 

175 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

I  was  carried  over  to  Naples  to  enter  the  International 
Hospital,  having  chartered  the  local  steamboat  for  an  ex- 
tra trip.  When  we  approached  the  dock,  I  found  an 
angry,  gesticulating  mob  determined  that  I  should  not 
land,  as  at  the  time  bubonic  plague  was  prevalent  and 
any  one  looking  as  weak  and  ill  as  I  did  was  in  their  eyes 
an  undesirable  visitor.  Munthe,  who  was  coming  down 
the  quay  to  take  the  boat,  simply  walked  among  them 
and  explained,  and  they  immediately  subsided,  many  ac- 
tually helping  me  ashore.  Any  one  knowing  the  attitude 
of  the  ordinary  savage  Neapolitan  crowd  will  appreciate 
not  only  the  risk  he  ran,  but  the  iniluence  he  must 
have  had. 

Munthe  had  fitted  up  and  restored  a  part  of  the  Bar- 
barossa  Castle,  but  it  proved  to  be  a  dangerous  place  in 
v/hich  to  stay,  for  it  was  three  times  struck  by  lightning 
in  one  summer,  so  he  lived  in  his  beautiful  villa  and  also 
used  the  Roman  rooms  he  had  excavated,  and  a  mediseval 
chapel  which  he  had  restored  to  its  original  condition, 
supplying  it  with  missals  and  ecclesiastical  belongings.  To 
him  came  at  various  times  the  Crown  Princess  of  Sweden, 
and  some  of  his  other  patients. 

Other  distinguished  residents  of  the  island  were  the  late 
Colonels  Mellis  and  Hempsted,  retired  British  officers; 
Professor  Behring,  the  discoverer  of  anti-diphtheritic 
serum,  and  Maxim  Gorky,  the  novelist,  who  arrived  after  I 
left.  I  also  knew  Norman  Douglas,  the  writer  and  jour- 
nalist, a  very  learned  man,  who  is  said  to  have  escaped 
from  the  island  in  a  small  boat  with  the  help  of  Mr.  Je- 
rome, the  American  Consul,  when  about  to  be  arrested  for 
a  ridiculous  civil  suit,  but  who  later  returned. 

There  was,  unfortunately,  another  kind  of  Capri  so- 
ciety that  eventually  made  it  a  disagreeable  place  of  abode. 

I  speak  of  the  Germans  who  overran  the  island:  there 

176 


CAPRI 

was  hardly  a  path  that  was  not  strewn  by  them  with  empty 
sardine  cans  and  greasy  papers,  scraps  of  ham  and  bread, 
marking  their  daily  walks;  their  noisy  voices  also  pene- 
trated everywhere.  They  were  accustomed  to  meet  at 
Pagano's  Hotel^  the  walls  of  which  were  covered  with 
mural  paintings  hy  Teutonic  artists  of  the  past  fifty  years. 

Apart  from  certain  drawbacks,  Capri  is  a  delightful 
place.  Despite  the  Neapolitan  admixture,  much  of  the 
Greek  type  of  beauty  is  found  among  the  women,  and 
the  older  people  are  fine  looking  and  of  good  character. 
When  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  came  to  Capri  in  1806  with  an 
English  force,  many  of  his  troops  were  red-headed  Irish- 
men, and  it  was  said  that  the  occasional  or  red-haired  Ca- 
presi  one  meets  owes  this  peculiarity  to  the  conjunction 
of  the  sexes  of  different  races,  but  I  saw  no  evidence  of  the 
transmission  of  Celtic  mental  traits.  The  children  are 
generally  very  cruel  to  animals,  as  are  many  adult  Italians, 
and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  a  toddling  youngster 
trailing  by  a  string  the  body  of  a  half-dead  bird.  The 
feathered  tribe  have  a  poor  chance,  for  every  one  who  can 
beg  or  borrow  a  gun  of  any  kind  shoots  even  the  smallest 
and  most  inedible  birds. 

The  most  cruel  practice  of  all  is  the  trapping  of  quail, 
and  I  have  seen  large  nets  stretched  over  the  upper  part 
of  Capri  in  the  line  of  flight  from  the  African  coast.  Each 
of  these  is  about  thirty  feet  high,  and  has  pockets  into 
which  the  quail  fall  when  exhausted  or  killed  when  they 
strike  the  net.  Not  only  are  flares  used  to  attract  them, 
but  the  cruel  Capresi  catches  a  bird  or  two  which  he  blinds 
by  a  red-hot  wire,  and  as  they  cannot  distinguish  night 
from  day  in  this  blind  state,  they  constantly  make  the  call 
that  attracts  fresh  victims. 

Life  on  the  island  is  a  dolce  far  niente  existence,  and  one 
can  be  happy  with  his  books,  an  occasional  foreign  mail, 

177 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  the  local  newspapers,  which  latter  are,  however,  poor 
things.  Besides  these,  the  walks  are  beautiful  and  there  are 
drives  and  excursions  on  the  sea.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  hours  in  the  day,  from  the  time  when  the  Naples  boat 
discharges  its  load  of  tourists  who  devour  macaroni  and 
drink  sour  Capri  (?)  wine,  at  the  hotels  on  the  Grand  Mar- 
ina, until  it  leaves  at  three  o'clock,  Capri  is  itself.  When* 
these  finally  depart,  one  draws  a  long  breath  of  relief.  Few 
of  the  sight-seers  reach  the  piazza  by  the  funicular  railway, 
or  take  a  vettura,  the  most  part  staying  on  the  boat.  The 
passenger  craft  for  the  most  part  were  condemned  English 
channel  steamers  that  had  had  long  years  of  service  and 
were  hardly  fit  for  even  the  eighteen-mile  trip,  which  was 
sometimes  a  very  rough  one.  One  day  when  I  went  home 
by  the  least  seaworthy  of  these,  I  examined  the  metallic 
lifeboat  and  found  I  could  run  my  knife  blade  through 
its  rusted  bottom  without  any  difficulty,  and  a  further 
search  revealed  structural  defects  of  other  kinds.  Some- 
times the  boats  bring  to  the  island  some  of  the  worst  laz- 
zaroni,  and  for  a  few  days  acts  of  burglary  occur,  but  for 
years  no  one  has  locked  his  doors  or  windows,  for  the  Ca- 
presi  himself  is  not  a  robber. 

One  of  the  best  known  characters  in  Capri  was  a  model, 
one  Spadero,  whose  specialty  is  posing  for  Christ.  He 
grew  his  hair  and  beard  in  the  fashion  of  religious  pictures, 
but  here  the  illusion  ended,  for  he  was  a  crafty  old  fellow. 
To  him  belonged  the  honour  of  having  climbed  to  the  top 
of  one  of  the  Farraleones,  two  great  rocks  that  arise  from 
the  sea  on  the  south  side  of  the  island,  and  finding  a  species 
of  the  celebrated  blue  lizard  which  is  to  be  seen  nowhere 
else  in  the  world. 

George  Butler,  the  one-armed  portrait  painter,  who 
had  been  a  fellow-officer  with  my  brother  in  the  Civil  War, 
lived  in  Capri  for  several  years,  and  married  a  native 

178 


CAPRI 

woman  with  whom  he  was  most  happy,  later  returning  to 
the  United  States,  where  he  died.  Another  marriage  of 
this  kind  was  that  of  Lord  Grantly,  who  afterward  became 
Lord  Norton ;  his  wife,  a  beautiful  Capresi,  took  a  promi- 
nent place  in  London  society.  Many  of  the  marriages  of 
the  local  artists  are  with  peasants  who  have  been  models, 
and  all  end  well.  Their  private  life  is  everything  that  can 
be  desired,  indeed  the  standard  of  native  virtue  is  high,  and 
the  old  Jewish  custom  of  announcing  the  previous  virgin 
purity  of  the  bride,  in  a  way  which  need  not  be  here  ex- 
plained, is  still  universal,  or  was  several  years  ago. 

One  who  lives  in  Italy  is  likely  to  suffer  from  taxation 
of  all  kinds.  The  cost  of  selling  a  house  and  the  taxes 
and  fees  are  about  ten  per  cent  of  its  value,  so  that  the 
Government  may  be  said  to  own  it  after  it  has  changed 
hands  ten  times.  The  richezza  mobile  or  income  tax  is 
especially  heavy,  being  twenty  per  cent.  This  is  arbitrarily 
collected,  and  I  have  known  the  case  of  a  poor  invalided 
peasant  who  had  made  nothing,  yet  the  collector  would 
not  listen  to  his  excuses,  but  insisted  upon  the  payment  of 
a  certain  sum  which  he  "ought  to  have  earned."  The  re- 
sult was  that  he  was  forced  to  labour  on  the  roads  for  a  day 
or  two,  or  until  he  was  supposed  to  have  worked  out  a  sum 
equal  to  the  richezza  fixed  by  the  authorities.  Government 
monopolies  of  salt,  sugar  and  tobacco,  and  the  conduct  of 
the  Custom  House  are  other  evils.  The  new  arrival 
is  treated  much  worse  than  he  is  in  the  United 
States,  where  things  are  certainly  bad  enough.  I 
was  taxed  and  fined  for  bringing  into  Naples  a  few 
chairs  with  cotton-covered  seats  which  the  inspectors 
insisted  contained  much  silk.  With  a  microscope 
one  could  detect  scattered  fibres  of  waste  silk  in  the  braid 
with  which  the  cushions  were  bound,  but  this  was  all.  They 
are  particularly  severe  upon  those  who  are  accused  of  im- 

179 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

porting  sugar,  and  a  lady  I  know  was  obliged  to  stand 
by  and  see  four  or  five  cans  of  corn  opened  and  ruined 
because  the  label  bore  the  words  "sugar  com."  Mark 
Twain  tells  the  story  of  a  Yankee  sea  captain  who  landed, 
and  was  asked  if  he  had  any  wine  or  spirits  to  declare. 
*'No,"  said  he,  "I  ran  no  chances  and  took  my  drink  before 
I  left  the  ship."  The  result  was  an  arrest,  not  only  for 
smuggling  liquor,  but  concealing  it  as  well. 

When  the  island  was  cut  oif  by  a  storm  for  a  week,  the 
salt  ran  out,  and  on  one  occasion  at  least  a  peasant  was 
found  evaporating  sea  water  on  the  shore.  He  was 
promptly  taken  before  the  Syndic  and  sentenced  to  impris- 
onment of  one  month. 

Capri  wine  is  a  misrepresented  thing,  and  though  Hke 
the  wine  of  Salernum  it  might,  in  bygone  days,  have  been 
properly  made,  and  even  ambrosial,  I  never  drank  a  bot- 
tle that  was  not  sour  and  unpalatable.  The  frequenter 
of  the  cheap  table  d'hote  in  the  United  States  or  else- 
where who  orders  Capri  bianco  or  rosso^  always  gets  so- 
phisticated wine  from  the  vineyards  about  the  base  of  Ve- 
suvius, to  which  sugar  and  alcohol  are  added;  in  fact,  the 
exportation  often  includes  the  poorest  kinds,  which  have 
been  fortified  and  doctored.  One  gets  better  wine  in  Sic- 
ily, and  the  brand  known  as  Corvo  is  really  drinkable. 
None  of  these  is  as  palatable  or  pure  as  really  good  Cali- 
fornia wine,  and  their  use  at  home  is  not  only  expensive 
but  usually  an  affectation. 

The  oil  is  good,  though  strong  in  flavour,  and  one  finds 
plenty  of  fine  fruit,  mostly  brought  from  the  mainland. 
Fish  are  abundant  and  delicious,  and  the  native  lobster 
or  langoust  was  not  so  very  dear.  The  red  mullet  and 
lamprey  eel  which  most  classical  writers  have  delighted  to 
praise,  and  which  graced  the  tables  of  Augustus  and  Ti- 
berius, were  brought  to  us  every  day,  with  figs,  grapes  and 

180 


CAPM 

oranges  from  the  garden,  while  vegetables  in  variety, 
cooked  over  small  charcoal  fires,  or  chickens  and  meats 
roasted  under  covers  would  have  delighted  Lucullus. 

One  of  the  plats  prepared  by  the  accomplished  Rosa,  a 
great  good-humoured  Capri  woman  whose  family  had 
lived  on  the  island  from  time  immemorial,  was  a  mixture  of 
egg-plant,  tomatoes  and  cheese,  baked  in  layers  with  thick 
and  rich  stock.  Pasquale,  her  husband,  a  barefooted  fish- 
erman dressed  in  a  suit  of  blue  cotton  with  a  red  silk  sash, 
did  the  work  about  the  house  and  brought  the  fish  from 
the  sea,  or  rowed  to  the  bathing  place. 

Many  days  were  ushered  in  by  the  booming  of  cannon 
which  were  used  to  celebrate  the  day  of  some  saint ;  these 
were  of  the  mortar  type  so  common  in  France  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century  and  were  touched  off  with  a  hot  iron. 
Then  during  the  morning  a  procession  of  the  islanders, 
including  the  young  girls  that  form  the  figlia  di  Maria, 
would  march  down  the  road  in  front  of  the  villa,  carrying 
the  ugly  statue  of  Saint  Constanza. 

Capri  is  famous  as  being  the  home  of  the  well-known 
Suor  Serafina  di  Dio^,  who  is  one  of  the  greatest  Roman 
Catholic  Saints ;  in  fact,  she  once  lived  in  the  building  next 
door  to  my  home,  which  was  originally  a  convent,  toward 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century.  Norman  Douglas,  in  a 
learned  article,  referred  to  the  suffering  of  this  remarkable 
woman,  who  flagellated  herself  and  indulged  in  other  hu- 
miliations too  disgusting  to  enumerate,  but  they  all  were 
connected  with  mortification  of  the  flesh.  "She  performed 
miracles  three  years  after  death;  her  picture  sweats  and 
speaks,  and  the  oil  that  burns  before  it  is  medicinally  use- 
ful ;  pieces  of  her  clothing  are  efficacious  as  talismans,  and 
pilgrimages  to  her  tomb  have  been  known  to  produce 
cures." 

I  made  one  very  good  friend  in  Capri,  the  elder  Dr. 

X81 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Cerio,  a  delightfully  simple  man,  learned  in  his  profession 
and  in  science  generally.  He  had  spent  all  his  life  there 
in  an  old  palace  next  to  the  Cathedral,  full  of  rambling 
rooms.  One  of  these  was  used  as  a  museum,  and  contained 
a  collection  of  local  curiosities  of  great  ethnological  value, 
including  stone  implements,  bronze  weapons  and  minerals, 
as  well  as  other  specimens  brought  from  Egypt  and  else- 
where. Being  first  on  the  spot,  he  has  accumulated  a  great 
quantity  of  Roman  remains,  pottery  and  Greek  glass.  The 
old  doctor  is  very  fond  of  animals,  and  one  of  his  pets 
is  a  large  ape,  that  clings  affectionately  to  him.  The 
doctor's  well-known  attachment  to  animal  pets  led  some 
friend  to  present  him  with  a  little  African  gazelle  which 
became  so  tame  that  it  would  follow  him  about  the  house, 
and  come  to  his  room  with  the  maid  who  brought  the  morn- 
ing coffee,  getting  its  share  of  the  breakfast.  Dr.  Cerio  is 
now  leading  a  lonely  life,  for  his  devoted  English  wife 
was  killed  by  a  stroke  of  lightning  and  his  children  are 
scattered. 

Once  he  brought  to  me  in  New  York  a  patient  from 
Capri,  and  was  as  happy  as  a  child  on  this  first  visit  to  the 
United  States,  spending  his  days  in  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History. 

After  the  battle  of  Manila,  Admiral  Dewey  stopped  at 
Naples,  but  although  I  boarded  his  ship  I  could  not  per- 
suade him  to  cross  the  bay  to  Capri.  I  was  delighted  to 
see  him,  and  found  him  just  the  same  quiet  unspoiled  per- 
son that  he  was  when  I  met  him  at  the  University  Club 
before  the  Spanish  war.  Marion  Crawford,  whom  I  had 
known  in  New  York,  lived  at  Sorrento,  and  on  a  clear  day 
I  could  see  his  villa.  I  had  occasionally  the  chance  to  meet 
home  friends,  but  Naples  is  not  a  pleasant  place  for  the 
traveller.  It  is  the  hot-bed  of  corruption  and  the  Camorra 
flourished  at  the  time  of  which  I  speak.    To  the  surprise 

182 


CAPRI 

of  every  one,  a  titled  Italian  who  was  supposed  to  be  a 
philanthropist  and  an  upright  member  of  society,  was 
really  the  head  of  this  gang  of  blackmailing  murderers. 
Beggars  in  shoals,  touts  for  bagnios,  and  other  human  ver- 
min were  in  the  Galleria  Humberto,  and  upon  the  public 
thoroughfares.  The  Neapolitan  cab  drivers  were  so  cruel 
to  their  horses  that  even  the  police  were  obliged  to  inter- 
fere, which  means  a  great  deal.  An  English  representa- 
tive of  the  local  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
arrested  one  of  these,  who  had  filled  the  horse's  collar  with 
sharp-pointed  nails;  for  his  trouble  he  was  stabbed,  and 
no  further  attempt  was  made  to  curb  this  evil.  As  there 
is  no  capital  punishment  in  Italy,  a  convicted  murderer  is 
sent  either  to  one  of  the  coast  islands  such  as  Ponza  (for 
only  a  short  time,  however,  as  he  usually  buys  his  freedom) , 
or  if  he  be  a  "political  murderer"  he  gets  a  sentence  of  ten 
years,  and  is,  as  the  result  of  confinement  in  an  under- 
ground dungeon,  driven  insane. 


183 


CHAPTER  XII 

MY  LIFE   IN   LONDON 

The  Irish  Coast — Old  London — Covent  Garden  and  Its  Taverns — 
The  Tavistock  Hotel — Evans'  Concert  Rooms — The  New  Club — 
The  Duke  of  Beaufort — London  Clubs — The  Beefsteak — Prince 
Francis  of  Teck — White's  and  Brooke's  Clubs — Gay  Life — Cre- 
mome  Gardens — ^Argyll  Rooms — Night  Clubs — London  Actors: 
Sir  Beerbohm  Tree,  Harry  Kemble,  W.  S.  Gilbert,  Charles 
Brookfield — The  Grossmiths — "The  Bodley  Head"  and  Its  Tea 
Parties — Oscar  Wilde — ^Watson,  the  Poet — Lord  Kitchener  and 
Sir  Edward  Cecil — Artificial  Rubber — Lloyd  George's  Attack  on 
King  Edward — Two  Great  Chief  Justices — Montagu  Williams 
— ^A  Donkey  Case — The  Mordaunt  Divorce  Case — ^A  "Funny" 
Judge — Sir  George  Lewis — London  Doctors — Sir  James  Crich- 
ton-Browne  and  Sir  Lauder  Brunton — Sir  Victor  Horsley, 
"Clothes  Horsley" — Bernard  Shaw  and  the  Doctors — London 
Consultants — Ocean  Crossings — The  Lost  Pilgrims  On  the  City 
of  Brussels — The  Chase  of  a  Whaler — Captain  Jones'  Tame 
Whales. 

Once  only  in  a  lifetime  does  one  experience  the  thrill  of 
pleasure  that  is  incident  to  the  first  glimpse  of  the  Irish 
coast  with  its  glorious  green  and  purple  shades,  and  sun- 
shine, and  vast  expanse  of  rock  and  surf ;  after  a  slow  voy- 
age in  bad  weather  this  sight  gives  one  not  only  mental  but 
actual  physical  pleasure. 

My  first  visit  to  London  was  made  at  a  time  when  I  was 
young  and  keen,  and  prepared  to  enjoy  it  to  the  fullest, 
for  all  my  ideals  of  England  and  English  life  were  founded 

184. 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

not  only  upon  the  delightful  reminiscences  of  my  mother, 
whose  life  abroad  had  been  so  pleasant  and  eventful,  but 
I  had  ever  been  a  diligent  reader  of  Thackeray  and  Dick- 
ens, who  pictured  the  life  in  different  ways.  It  was  to 
plunge  immediately  into  the  atmosphere  of  old  London 
that  I  sought  the  Tavistock  Hotel,  situated  in  the  heart  of 
Covent  Garden,  and  one  of  the  very  few  old  taverns  left. 
For  many  years  it  has  been  patronised  by  a  clientele  of  its 
own,  among  which  were  substantial  country  squires,  and 
old-fashioned,  conservative  people. 

Covent  Garden  was  at  one  time  the  convent  garden  of 
Westminster,  and  in  1222  it  was  known  as  Trere  Pye  gar- 
den. Later  it  was  built  upon,  a  market  occupying  the 
centre.  St.  Paul's  church  was  on  the  west  side,  while 
around  the  other  sides  was  an  arcade,  or  piazza,  in  front 
of  various  substantial  buildings  which  were  chiefly  given 
up  to  hotel  purposes.  Covent  Garden  was  always  the  cen- 
tre of  much  activity  of  various  kinds,  and  Sidney  Smith 
referred  to  its  "amorous  and  herbivorous  pavement,"  which 
is  expressive  of  the  place  to-day  although  it  is  no  longer 
a  rendezvous  for  the  pugnacious  Mohun  and  the  duellists 
of  other  times,  and  rags  rather  than  gold  lace  and  ruffles 
are  to  be  seen.  The  raucous  slang  of  the  coster  who  fills 
his  barrow,  or  munches  his  breakfast  while  he  drinks  enor- 
mous bowls  of  tea  before  starting  on  his  rounds,  fills  the 
morning  air,  and  the  noisy  chaffing  of  the  market  men  is 
heard  on  every  side. 

Thackeray  said:  "The  two  great  national  theatres  on 
one  side,  a  churchyard  of  mouldy  but  undying  celebrities 
on  the  other ;  a  frieze  of  houses  studded  in  every  part  with 
anecdotes  or  history;  an  arcade  often  more  gloomy  and 
deserted  than  a  cathedral  aisle ;  a  rich  cluster  of  brown  old 
taverns,  one  of  them  filled  with  the  counterfeit  presenti- 
ments of  many  actors  long  since  silent,  who  scowl  and  smile 

185 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

once  more  from  the  canvas  upon  the  grandsons  of  their 
dead  admirers ;  a  something  in  the  air  which  breathes  of  old 
books,  old  paintings  and  old  authors;  a  place  beyond  all 
other  places  one  would  choose  in  which  to  hear  the  chimes 
at  midnight,  and  a  common  centre  into  which  Nature  show- 
ers her  choicest  gifts,  and  where  the  kindly  fruits  of  the 
earth  often  nearly  choke  the  narrow  thoroughfares ;  a  pop- 
ulation that  never  seems  to  sleep,  and  that  does  all  in  its 
power  to  prevent  others  sleeping;  a  place  where  the  very 
latest  supper  and  the  earliest  breakfast  jostle  each  other 
over  the  footways." 

The  Tavistock  Hotel  was  originally  known  as  the  Piazza 
Hotel,  and  was  fitted  up  by  one  Macklin,  an  actor,  who 
provided  a  large  coffee  room  for  refreshments  and  oratory. 
To  a  three-shilling  "ordinary"  he  added  a  shilling  lecture, 
or  "school  of  oratory  and  criticism."  Foote  and  Field- 
ing were  among  the  frequenters.  At  the  original  Piazza, 
Sheridan  and  Oliver  Goldsmith  often  met  with  their  cro- 
nies, or  joined  the  "shilling  rubber  club"  at  the  Bedford 
next  door. 

Even  to-day  it  is  a  characteristic  survival  of  old  London, 
and  one  is  quite  prepared  to  meet  Dr.  Johnson  or  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds  straying  through  the  deserted  passages, 
or  to  hear  David  Garrick  ordering  his  punch  "with  plenty 
of  sugar."  The  office  on  the  second  floor  is  reached  by  a 
flight  of  steep  brass-covered  stairs,  and  on  the  right  is  an 
old-fashioned  coffee  room.  At  the  time  of  my  first  visit 
there  were  wide  alcoves,  and  separate  heavy  mahogany 
tables,  while  generous  English  joints  and  aldermanic  fowl 
were  within  easy  reach.  The  wines  were  the  oldest  and 
best,  and  one  was  waited  upon  by  solemn  and  ancient 
waiters  of  the  type  of  those  who  served  David  Copperfield 
when  he  dined  with  Steerforth.  The  bedrooms  were  very 
dark  and  filled  with  ponderous  old  furniture — ^just  the 

186 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON" 

place  for  ghostly  visitors,  and  one  could  not  feel  quite  sure 
that  Hogarth  or  Sam  Foote  would  not  claim  that  the  room 
was  theirs,  or  at  least  try  the  door  knob. 

The  Star  Hotel  at  one  time  occuj)ied  the  house  at  the 
northwest  corner  of  Covent  Garden  that  had  belonged  to 
Admiral  Russell,  afterward  Earl  of  Orford.  It  was  later 
the  home  of  the  eccentric  Kenelm  Digby,  and  was  after- 
ward acquired  by  an  actor  named  Evans,  who  opened  a 
concert  hall  with  a  high  grade  of  part-singing.  In  1844 
it  was  bought  by  a  Mr.  John  Green,  who  made  extensive 
alterations,  taking  in  the  garden  which  was  formerly  the 
site  of  a  cottage  belonging  to  the  Kembles,  and  where 
the  celebrated  Fanny  Kemble  was  born.  Here  one  could 
hear  a  marvellous  boy  choir,  which  sang  old  English  glees 
while  he  quaffed  his  musty  ale  and  ate  his  Welsh  rarebit, 
and  at  one  time  there  was  a  series  of  amusing  mock  trials, 
usually  dealing  with  divorce  or  breach  of  promise  cases 
with  questionable  details.  Many  of  them  were  conducted 
by  clever  but  broken  down  barristers  who  were  brilliant 
indeed  when  sober,  and  at  one  time  had  distinguished  them- 
selves at  the  English  bar,  but  as  the  result  of  drink  or  other 
failings  had  degenerated  to  this  level. 

It  later  became  the  New  Club,  where  nightly  dances 
took  place,  and  a  great  effort  was  made  to  keep  it  a  decent 
place.  One  of  its  chief  visitors  was  the  old  Duke  of  Beau- 
fort, that  famous  patron  of  the  sports,  who  sat  on  one  side 
of  the  room  and  acted  as  a  sort  of  Master  of  Ceremonies, 
while  he  amiably  beamed  upon  every  one.  I  met  him  at 
an  early  period,  and  he  immediately  selected  for  me  a  danc- 
ing partner  who  at  the  time  was  Miss  Connie  Gilchrist  of 
the  Gaiety  Theatre ;  she  afterward  became  the  Countess  of 
Orkney,  and  is  to-day  a  sedate  elderly  woman  of  much 
good  sense  and  usefulness.  She  was  then  a  blithesome,  at- 
tractive young  girl.    Another  frequenter  of  the  club  was 

187 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Lord  Donoughmore,  who  was  known  as  "D,"  a  big-hearted 
and  jovial  Irish  peer,  who  had  done  much  excellent  work 
as  secretary  to  his  uncle,  Lord  Minto,  Viceroy  of  India. 
He  later  had  a  business  connection  with  the  Grace  Brothers 
in  Peru,  and  his  son,  the  present  Earl,  married  the  beau- 
tiful daughter  of  Michael  Grace.  "Hughie"  Drummond, 
always  ready  for  practical  jokes;  the  handsome  George 
Howard,  Marquis  of  Queensberry,  resplendent  in  sport- 
ing and  rather  loud  clothes;  and  Harry  DeWindt,  the  ex- 
plorer and  writer,  were  also  habitues. 

Most  London  clubs  were  originally  the  outgrowth  of 
tavern  meetings.  The  first  is  supposed  to  have  been  that 
founded  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  at  the  Mermaid,  while 
at  the  Devil's  Tavern  in  Temple  Bar  Ben  Jonson  es- 
tablished the  Apollo  Club,  which  was  frequented  by  a 
number  of  interesting  people,  among  them  Shakespere. 
The  Cocoa  Tree  was  also  one  of  the  oldest,  as  was  the 
Kit-Kat,  referred  to  by  Addison  in  the  Spectator,  and 
there  are  many  in  existence  to-day  which  date  back  to 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 

The  most  enjoyable  small  and  exclusive  club  is  the  Beef- 
steak, founded  in  1876  by  the  8th  Duke  of  Beaufort, 
Claude  Hay,  "Hughie"  Drummond,  Charles  Sugden  the 
actor,  and  a  few  others,  and  to  which  I  have  belonged  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century.  Its  predecessor  was  the  Sublime 
Society  of  the  Beefsteaks,  started  by  one  Richard  Est- 
court,  a  well-known  harlequin  and  machinist  at  the  Covent 
Garden  Theatre  in  1709.  Hogarth,  and  all  the  celebrated 
men  of  that  day,  were  members  of  the  club,  which  was 
housed  in  a  room  in  the  upper  part  of  the  theatre.  In 
1735  one  Rich  founded  another  which  lasted  until  1867 
and  met  in  the  Lyceum  Theatre.  The  present  Beefsteak, 
whost  list  of  members  includes  some  of  the  most  noted 
Englishmen  in  every  profession,  and  where  one  is  sure 

188 


h..Jii-- 


K-^  C      jfeii 


OLD    BEEFSTEAK    CLUB     (1876-1895) 

With  permission  of  Leslie  Ward,  Esq. 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

of  finding  a  congenial  companion  at  dinner,  has  a  collec- 
tion of  quaint  and  antique  silver,  including  some  of  the 
relics  of  the  first  Beefsteak,  among  them  the  ring  and 
sword  of  Garrick.  Ralph  Neville,  in  his  book,  said:  "The 
Beefsteak,  like  the  Garrick,  once  contained  quite  a  number 
of  members,  who  had  a  great  disinclination  to  go  to  bed, 
and  who  lingered  late  over  the  pleasant  talk  of  the  supper 
table."  I  can  recall  many  late  sittings  of  this  kind  when 
I  had  such  agreeable  companions  as  Prince  Francis  of 
Teck,  W.  L.  Courtney,  the  Editor  of  the  Fortnightly  Re- 
view,  Sir  George  Chetwynd  and  others,  all  of  whom  talked 
interestingly.  The  first  named  was  a  very  simple  and 
agreeable  soldier,  whose  chief  interest  was  the  management 
of  the  Middlesex  Hospital,  and  no  charitable  work  was 
too  great  for  him.  I  was  sorry  I  could  not  before  his  death 
accept  his  kind  invitation  to  address  the  students. 

He  told  me  one  evening  a  rather  comical  experience  he 
had  had  in  India,  when  he  was  camping  with  his  regiment. 
It  appears  that  the  command  had  pitched  its  tents  in  a 
rather  cold  spot,  in  a  district  where  there  were  many  large 
monkeys,  and  after  he  had  turned  in  with  very  meagre 
bed  covering,  he  was  surprised  to  receive  a  visit  from  first 
one  and  then  a  second  of  them,  who  lifted  the  blanket,  and 
cuddled  in  next  to  the  big  ofScer,  remaining  until  morning, 
when  they  slyly  raised  the  tent  flap  and  scampered  off  to 
the  woods. 

Most  of  us  who  have  read  The  Virginians  must  remem- 
ber Harry  WaiTington's  visit  to  White's  Club,  which  was 
known  as  White's  Chocolate  House  in  1698,  and  is  referred 
to  at  a  later  period  of  its  existence  by  Thackeray.  White's 
and  Brooke's  Clubs  are  to-day  the  two  smartest  in  the 
world,  and  are  both  proprietary  clubs  frequented  chiefly 
by  army  and  navy  officers  and  young  men  about  town. 
Play  is  high  and  such  a  membership  is  an  expensive  luxury 

189 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

for  many  reasons.  A  few  years  ago  some  New  Yorkers 
of  the  newly  rich  kind,  who  were  introduced  there,  made 
themselves  so  obnoxious  that  a  rule  was  passed  that  con- 
fined the  membership  to  men  of  English  birth.  Social 
complications  attending  the  numerous  Anglo-American 
marriages  have  been  common,  and  the  occasional  coming 
to  London  of  certain  dissipated  individuals  and  relations 
— ^the  gilded  youth  who  even  at  home  caused  "the  judicious 
to  grieve,"  and  who  were  guilty  in  England  of  gross  social 
indiscretions — ^has  certainly  produced  a  bad  impression 
which  is  likely  to  remain. 

There  is  always  something  most  common-place  about  the 
so-called  gay  life  of  London,  in  spite  of  its  alleged  wicked- 
ness, and  Weedon  Grossmith  tells  some  funny  stories  of 
the  extreme  dulness  of  most  of  the  supposedly  fast  re- 
sorts of  other  days.  I  well  remember  the  chain  of  all-night 
clubs  which  included  the  Corinthian  in  St.  James's  Square, 
the  Gardenia  in  Leicester  Square,  and  others  that  served 
a  well-known  purpose  of  "providing  exclusivism  for  the 
masses"  and  favouring  certain  amatory  assignations. 
"These  clubs,"  said  Grossmith,  "were  not  difficult  to  be- 
come members  of,  though  you  had  to  be  properly  proposed 
and  seconded ;  this  was  frequently  accomplished  by  the  aid 
of  the  hall  porter  as  proposer  and  a  cabman  as  seconder." 
Such  places,  however,  shortly  went  out  of  existence,  and 
were  rejuvenated  only  a  year  or  two  ago,  but  some  were 
such  foul  nests  for  all  kinds  of  vice,  as  well  as  blackmail 
and  even  robbery,  that  the  majority  have  lately  been  sup- 
pressed. People  were  brought  in  from  the  streets  by  the 
harpies  that  infest  Leicester  Square  v/ithout  any  form  of 
election  whatever,  but  as  the  English  law  demands  that 
even  workingmen's  clubs  should  conform  to  the  Licensing 
Act  of  1902,  which  requires  that  any  one  who  joins  a  club 

190 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

shall  be  proposed  at  least  forty-eight  hours  before  his  elec- 
tion, their  extinction  ought  to  be  an  easy  matter. 

The  famous  Vauxhall  Gardens  referred  to  by  Pepys  and 
Thackeray  became  a  thing  of  the  past  in  1859,  but  were 
later  succeeded  by  Cremorne  Gardens,  which  were  situated 
in  the  gardens  of  the  country  house  of  Lord  Cremorne, 
but  they  too  were  suppressed  because  of  noise  and  disorder 
in  1877.  During  their  existence  they  were  a  resort  for  a 
gay  set  who  danced  upon  a  circular  platform  to  the  music 
of  an  excellent  band  with  surroundings  of  lights  and  fire- 
works. 

I  well  remember  the  Argyll  Rooms,  which  was  succeeded 
by  the  present  Trocadero  restaurant,  at  the  corner  of 
Shaftesbury  Avenue  and  Windmill  Street.  I  recall  also 
the  fact  that  a  world- wise  ( ?)  American  friend  who  took 
me  there,  seriously  told  me  that  the  place  was  the  favourite 
rendezvous  of  the  best  of  English  society.  I  soon  found 
that  the  beautiful  women,  in  their  superb  but  rather  loud 
clothes,  belonged  to  the  "oldest  profession  in  the  world," 
that  most  of  the  male  frequenters  were  of  the  shadiest  kind, 
and  that  many  had  evidently  dined  too  well  that  evening. 
This  place  was  closed  in  the  late  seventies,  despite  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  "resort  of  the  British  aristocracy." 

There  are  many  men  on  the  English  stage  to-day  who 
possess  the  same  brilliancy  and  wit  that  was  Foote's. 
Some  are  Admirable  Crichtons,  and  have  varied  accom- 
plishments. My  old  friend,  Wilfred  Draycott,  is  not  only 
a  versatile  actor,  but  a  learned  botanist  as  well,  and  when 
he  visits  us  he  spends  much  of  his  time  in  the  woods,  re- 
turning with  arms  full  of  wild  flowers.  Weedon  Grossmith 
is  an  artist,  as  are  other  actors,  and  most  of  them  have 
written  novels  or  plays,  or  done  other  literary  work  of 
merit.  Sir  Charles  Wyndham  was  a  surgeon  and  fought 
in  our  Civil  War,  and  I  have  always  been  impressed  with 

191 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  culture  and  education  of  the  English  players  of  recent 
times,  many  of  whom  are  graduates  of  the  great  Universi- 
ties. 

Sir  Herbert  Beerbohm  Tree,  who  is  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful actor-managers  in  London,  is  an  old  friend  whose 
career  I  have  watched  with  the  greatest  interest.  He 
comes  from  a  clever  family,  his  brother  being  Max  Beer- 
bohm, the  writer  and  caricaturist.  His  industry  and  re- 
sourcefulness are  remarkable,  and  I  have  attended  rehears- 
als at  His  Majesty's  Theatre  that  extended  to  the  early 
morning,  when  he  was  the  only  one  of  the  great  cast  who 
was  apparently  not  exhausted;  and  he  ought  to  have 
been,  for  he  attends  to  the  smallest  details,  and  by  extreme 
persuasion,  gentle  sarcasm  or  an  expletive  or  two,  manages 
to  get  a  perfect  performance.  Sir  Herbert  has  the  good 
sense  to  employ  the  best  advice  he  can  find;  the  aid  of 
noted  artists,  antiquarians  and  historians  is  sought  when 
needed,  and  the  result  is  a  performance  free  from  the  an- 
achronisms of  the  ordinary  theatre.  When  he  produced 
the  Darling  of  the  Gods  he  called  upon  Markino,  the  clever 
Japanese  artist,  then  in  London,  who  was  responsible  for 
the  beautiful  mise  en  scene.  When  a  new  production  is 
staged  Tree  shuts  himself  up  in  the  theatre  and  works 
night  and  day.  He  has  a  sumptuous  suite  of  apartments 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  building,  and  a  beautifully  dec- 
orated banqueting  hall  wherein  he  gives  supper  parties, 
one  of  which  I  attended. 

He  is  a  great  and  original  character  actor,  and  his  make- 
up is  most  perfect,  usually  taking  much  time.  It  is,  I 
think,  his  ambition  to  be  considered  a  great  Hamlet,  but  his 
dearest  friends  have  not  been  over-sanguine  as  to  his  com- 
plete success  in  this  part.  There  is  a  story  told  at  his  ex- 
pense of  a  visit  paid  to  a  provincial  theatre  by  his  friend. 
Sir  John  Hare,  where  Tree  was  playing  Hamlet;  after 

192 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

the  performance  they  adjourned  for  supper.  "Hare,  what 
do  you  think  of  my  Hamlet?"  asked  Tree.  "Well/'  replied 
Hare,  "as  you  have  asked  me  to  be  frank,  I  cannot  say  I 
like  it  at  all."  (A  pause.)  "But  you  like  my  wife's 
Ophelia?'"  To  which  Hare  with  becoming  chivalry,  but 
over-mastering  frankness,  replied:  "Well,  to  tell  you  the 
truth,  Herbert,  I  think  I  have  seen  her  do  better  in  other 
parts."  Then  there  was  an  awkward  pause,  but  Tree's 
optimism  came  to  his  aid  and  he  said:  "Well,  anyway,  it 
is  a  noble  play,  is  it  not?  I  am  sure  you  are  not  prepared 
to  deny  this."    And  Hare  did  not. 

Tree  is  a  most  amiable  man,  with  a  soft  voice,  which 
lisps  slightly.  He  possesses  that  great  gift  of  making  his 
hearer  think  he  is  always  the  subject  of  the  greatest  inter- 
est. Sometimes  his  intonation  is  peculiar  and,  like  that 
of  the  late  Henry  Irving,  tempts  a  lot  of  would-be  enter- 
tainers who  strive,  but  without  much  success,  to  imitate 
his  peculiarities.  He  is  absent-minded,  and  it  is  said  on 
occasions  he  has  forgotten  to  give  the  address  to  the  cab- 
man. He  is  fond  of  occasional  vague  conversations,  dur- 
ing which  he  is  inclined  to  pose.  One  day  when  he  was 
dreamingly  talking  to  Leslie  Ward,  he  said,  after  inquir- 
ing what  were  Ward's  politics,  "You  know,  Leslie,  I  am 
a  Socialist."  To  which  the  latter  replied:  "Then  why,  in 
Heaven's  name,  do  you  keep  the  words  'His  Majesty's' 
over  the  door  of  your  theatre?" 

W.  S.  Gilbert  was  another  London  friend.  I  had  met 
him  in  New  York  at  a  time  when  he  had  come  over  with 
Sir  Arthur  Sullivan  and  Alfred  Cellier  to  produce  the 
Pirates  of  Penzance,  and  they  had  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  those  persons  who  were  quite  ready  to  steal  their  copy- 
right, and  who,  upon  one  occasion,  were  successful.  Gil- 
bert, therefore,  was  not  cordially  disposed  towards  Amer- 
ica.   He  was  a  most  interesting  man  but  not  a  person  in 

193 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

whom,  from  his  appearance,  one  would  look  for  such  orig- 
inal and  whimsical  wit  and  humour.  He  seriously  acted 
as  a  magistrate  in  the  JMiddlesex  Court,  and  the  thought 
occurs  to  one  whether  he  did  not  sometimes  indulge  in 
the  legal  humour  of  the  leading  character  of  Tjial  by  Jury. 
I  have  listened  to  his  charming  talk  for  hours,  and  upon 
one  occasion  he  attacked  the  value  of  novels  that  had  gone 
out  of  fashion,  being  particularly  severe  upon  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  but  all  the  time  one  seriously  suspected  that  he  was 
poking  fun  at  us.  The  delightful  character  of  all  his  ht- 
erary  work  consisted  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  clever  pro- 
duction of  a  well-educated  and  widely  informed  man,  and 
quite  spontaneous. 

A  player  of  the  old  school  and  of  a  noted  theatrical  fam- 
ily was  Harry  Kemble,  with  whom  I  have  had  many  a  de- 
lightful evening,  and  whom  I  first  met  when  he  was  play- 
ing The  Man  from  Blankleys.  He  was  a  born  low  come- 
dian, an  elderly  and  rotund  farceur^  with  a  laughter-com- 
pelling manner,  a  great  deal  of  comic  gravity  and  a  some- 
what stilted  and  quivering  voice  and  mode  of  addi-ess.  He 
always  dressed  in  sombre  black,  being  known  to  his  friends 
as  "the  beetle."  When  he  lived  at  Datchet,  just  after 
Prince  Leopold  died,  he  met  Queen  Victoria,  who  was  in 
heavy  mourning,  taking  her  daily  drive:  at  that  time  the 
Queen  had  a  very  florid  complexion,  and  Kemble's  irrev- 
erent description  of  her  was  "a  carbuncle  set  in  jet." 

Charlie  Brookfield,  another  good  friend,  was  once  spend- 
ing the  week-end  with  Kemble.  One  Sunday  morning  he 
took  an  air  gun  into  the  garden  and  shot  a  sparrow.  Kem- 
ble rushed  into  the  house  and  called  to  Draycott  and  other 
friends:  "Something  so  dreadful  has  happened;  Charlie's 
assassinated  one  of  God's  choristers,"  and  then  added:  "I 
fear  it's  the  soprano." 

Once  Kemble  and  Draycott  were  waiting  for  a  train  at 

194) 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

the  Windsor  railway  station,  when  two  small  schoolboys 
came  in  and  looked  rather  wistfully  at  the  cakes  in  the  re- 
freshment room  window.  Kenible  took  them  into  the  room 
and  stood  them  buns  and  ginger  beer,  and  he  said  to  them : 
"Now  some  day  you  can  tell  your  grandchildren  that  you 
knew  Mr.  Kemble,  the  actor."  Then  turning  to  Draycott, 
he  said:  "Thus,  mj^  dear  Wilfred,  do  I  purchase  immor- 
tality at  sixpence  a  head." 

The  Brookfield  who  killed  the  sparrow  was  a  delightfully 
droll  individual,  a  clever  character-actor,  who  achieved  his 
great  and  early  success  in  the  Kobertson  comedies  at  the 
old  Prince  of  Wales  Theatre.  He  was  the  son  of  the 
Reverend  William  Henry  Brookfield,  whose  wife  was  so 
admired  by  Thackeray,  and  who  was  so  great  a  beauty. 
Charlie  Brookfield  was  an  erratic  man,  and  none  of  his 
friends  knew  wha.t  he  would  do  next.  During  the  latter 
years  of  his  life  he  went  to  Italy  for  ill-health,  and  became 
a  Roman  Catholic,  and  at  one  time  it  was  said  that  he  in- 
tended becoming  a  monk.  This  rumour  was  untrue,  but 
he  succeeded  in  making  one  of  his  only  son  "Peter,"  who  is 
now  in  an  English  monastery:  as  I  hear  he  has  inherited 
much  of  his  father's  humour,  he  must  be  a  welcome  addi- 
tion to  his  immured  companions. 

Brookfield  had  a  caustic  tongue,  and  his  wit  often  ran- 
kled, making  him  enemies.  The  golden  opportunity  for 
this  was  when  he  became  Censor  of  plays;  he  was  then 
widely  abused  and  a  rather  risque  farce  he  had  written 
years  before,  called,  I  believe.  That  Awful  Charlie ^  was 
held  up  as  an  example  of  his  moral  unfitness.  Most  of  his 
ragging  was  not  really  ill-natured,  but  he  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  of  having  a  fling  at  some  peculiarly  ofii- 
cious  or  conceited  individual.  He  hated  affectation  and 
pomposity,  and  one  of  his  victims  was  an  elderly,  over- 
rated, and  rather  grandiloquent  American  correspondent, 

195 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

who  came  in  for  his  share  of  ridicule.  One  of  those  who 
drew  forth  his  chaffing  was  George  Grossmith,  the  very 
successful  singer  and  entertainer,  who  was  known  as  the 
creator  of  the  role  of  Sir  Joseph  Porter  in  Pinafore. 

One  night,  years  ago,  when  George  Grossmith  was  giv- 
ing his  entertainment  at  St.  George's  Hall,  he  and  C 

were  dining  together.     After  dinner  Grossmith  left  for 

his  work.     C remarked  that  "none  of  the  company 

could  go  and  sit  down  at  a  piano  and  sing  some  songs  and 
make  one  hundred  pounds."  "No,"  said  Brookfield,  "but 
we  don't  look  funny  in  dress  clothes." 

Two  stories  are  told  of  him  by  Leslie  Ward  in  his  Forty 
Years  a  Spy.  When  Brookfield  first  went  upon  the  stage, 
an  outraged  and  emphatic  relative  met  him  on  the  street 
and  exclaimed:  "Oh,  my  dear  Charles,  why  in  the  name 
of  God  do  you  go  on  the  stage?"  To  which  Brookfield  re- 
plied :  "I  certainly  have  no  idea  of  using  any  name  but  my 
own  when  I  take  that  step."  One  Christmas  he  had  the 
effrontery  to  write  to  the  editor  of  the  Lancet,  the  dignified 
medical  weekly,  and  offer  to  prepare  for  it  a  Christmas 
story,  to  be  called  "My  First  Post-Mortem." 

I  first  met  Weedon  Grossmith  in  New  York  in  the 
eighties.  He  was  with  a  delightful  set  of  theatrical  people, 
who  were  enormously  successful  in  their  production  of  A 
Pantomime  Rehearsal,  a  clever  skit  written  by  Cecil  Clay, 
and  descriptive  of  the  efforts  of  a  party  of  fashionable 
amateurs  to  act.  I  regret  to  say  that  it  has  since  been 
grievously  murdered  by  generations  of  real  amateurs,  who 
have  utilised  it  for  purposes  of  charity,  from  time  to  time. 
When  originally  acted,  the  clever  Vokes  family  took  the 
principal  parts,  but  when  Grossmith  played  Sir  Arthur 
Pomeroy  he  created  a  role  that  is  quite  unique.  Sir  Arthur 
is  a  spoiled  little  fop  who,  despite  the  agonised  objections 
of  the  stage  manager,  insists  on  playing  the  part  in  his 

196 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

own  way,  making  wrong  entrances,  introducing  new  "busi- 
ness," and  petulantly  throwing  up  (or  rather  down)  his 
part  at  the  least  opposition.  In  the  cast  Willie  Elliot,  a 
dear  old  friend,  played  the  stage  manager,  while  Brandon 
Thomas,  who  wrote  Charley's  Aunt  and  made  several 
large  fortunes  therefrom,  which  he  as  easily  lost,  was  the 
heavy  dragoon.  I  have  spoken  of  Grossmith's  artistic 
talent.  It  is  a  pity  that  a  man  whose  work  was  certainly 
as  good  as  that  of  Millais  could  not  make  a  fortune  by  his 
brush,  but  the  world  is  a  gainer  in  another  v/ay,  and  he 
is  constantly  delighting  London, 

One  of  the  interesting  places  in  London  is  the  Bodley 
Head,  the  bookshop  of  John  Lane  in  Burlington  Street, 
at  the  upper  end  of  the  Albany.  Lane  is  more  responsible 
than  any  one  for  bringing  out  and  "making"  a  number 
of  writers  and  illustrators  whose  names  have  to-day  a 
world-wide  celebrity.  Back  of  his  counting  house  is  a  little 
room  where  these  people  dropped  in  to  afternoon  tea,  and 
there  I  often  went.  Some  of  them  had  written  for  the 
Yellow  Booh,  which  was  discontinued  after  the  Oscar 
Wilde  scandal,  and  others  were  newcomers.  I  was  rather 
disappointed  not  to  meet  Wilde  again,  for  I  had  known 
him  at  the  University  Club  in  New  York,  where  he  had 
been  a  visitor  a  year  or  two  before,  and  where  he  confided 
to  me  the  unreality  of  some  of  his  affectations  which  were 
supposed  to  attract  American  audiences,  and  which  I  ad- 
vised him  to  cut  out.  I  was  surprised,  as  were  many,  to 
hear  of  his  disgrace,  and  that,  at  the  very  time,  he  was  an 
inmate  of  Reading  gaol.  He  was  but  another  example 
of  much  intellectual  brilliancy  associated  with  homo-sexu- 
ality, a  common  enough  combination,  with  which  the  psy- 
chiatrist and  criminologist  are  familiar — but  what  aston- 
ished me  most  was  to  find  a  great  number  of  people  taking 

197 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

his  part,  among  them  the  literary  wife  of  a  distinguished 
K.  C,  whose  son  was  a  charming  writer. 

I  often  went  to  Bodley  Head,  and  there  met  Richard  Le 
Galhenne,  whose  fanciful  and  graceful  verse  was  that  of  a 
second  Villon.  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  since  those  days  he 
has  had  his  hair  cut ;  it  was  then  picturesquely  long.  Wil- 
liam Watson,  the  poet,  untalkative  and  sad,  was  another 
tea-drinker ;  and  Kenneth  Grahame,  author  of  the  Golden 
Age,  and  Henry  Harland,  were  habitues.  "George  Eger- 
ton"  was  the  pseudonym  of  a  charming  woman  playwright 
and  novelist. 

The  poet  Watson's  productions  have,  I  believe,  gained 
for  him  a  national  pension,  but  his  work  is  very  uneven. 
I  have  recently  found  a  little  verse  of  his  v/hich  is  inter- 
esting to  me,  because  it  is  an  example  of  the  influence  of 
what  is  known  to  psychiatrists  as  the  "clang." 

VERITAS  VICTRIX 

The  mill  of  Lies  is  Loud, 
Whose   overseer,   Germania's   Over-lord, 
Hath  overmuch  adored 
The  Over-sword,  and  shall  be  overthrown, 
with  the  overproud. 

While  the  sentiment  is  admirable,  the  use  of  the  word 
"over,"  as  it  is  here  employed,  must  impress  the  alienist 
as  a  familiar  indication  of  a  psychic  peculiarity. 

I  met  the  late  Lord  Kitchener  shortly  after  his  return 
from  the  Soudan  campaign.  He  was  of  course  idolised, 
as  he  always  has  been  and  ever  will  be,  for  the  English 
people  love  a  brave  soldier.  He  was  then  the  recipient 
of  certain  honours  from  the  government,  but  in  the  House 
of  Commons  there  were  a  few  small-minded  critics  of  the 
Exeter  Hall  type  who  were  opposed  to  making  him  any 

198 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

money  grant  because  he  "had  shocked  the  religious  views 
of  the  holders  of  the  Mohammedan  faith."  Kitchener's 
alleged  offence  was  that  he  had  directed  that  the  Mahdi's 
head  should  be  thrown  into  the  Nile,  wisely  knowing  that 
the  only  way  to  make  the  enemy  really  fear  him  was  to  do 
something  that  would  strike  at  the  root  of  superstition,  and 
that  this  ignoble  end  would  have  the  desired  effect. 
Kitchener  was  a  superb  example  of  physical  development 
and  a  vigorous,  sensible  man,  free  from  vanity.  His  fea- 
tures were  large  and  his  eyes  grey-blue,  and  searching, 
although  one  of  them  had  been  injured.  He  spoke  in  a 
quiet  low  voice,  but  very  distinctly  and  impressively.  His 
able  aide  was  Sir  Edward  Cecil,  who  not  only  went 
through  the  various  Eastern  and  South  African  campaigns 
with  his  chief,  but  has  since  occupied  positions  of  great 
trust.  Sir  Edward  developed  into  an  executive  financier 
of  great  astuteness  in  Egypt,  and  has  as  well  been  Lieu- 
tenant General  of  the  forces.  Since  the  war  began,  much 
of  his  time  has  been  spent  in  London;  he  was  on  his  way 
back  to  Egypt  in  August,  1914,  when  he  was  recalled,  so 
important  were  his  services  considered.  I  have  always 
admired  him  for,  like  Kitchener,  he  is  a  typical  soldier 
and  a  jolly  companion.  Since  our  last  meeting  his  only 
son  was  killed  in  the  trenches ;  a  dreadful  blow,  the  effect 
of  which,  however,  will  only  be  to  make  him  more  deter- 
mined and  more  ready  to  do  his  duty,  if  such  a  thing  is 
possible.  Much  of  his  great  ability  he  inherits,  of  course, 
from  his  father,  the  late  Marquis  of  Salisbury.  To  most 
of  his  friends  this  burly-headed,  boyish  man  is  known  as 
"Ned,"  and  he  is  affable,  quite  full  of  fun,  and  abomi- 
nates "side"  of  any  kind. 

I  met  in  London  a  year  or  two  ago  Mark  Barr,  an 
American  scientist,  who,  I  believe,  originally  came  from 
Philadelphia,  and  who  by  his  clever  suggestions  in  applied 

199 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

chemistry  has  rapidly  made  a  place  for  himself  as  an  ex- 
pert adviser  in  important  conmiercial  questions.  Since 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  has  been  an  invaluable  coun- 
sellor. Barr  told  me  a  remarkable  story  which  might 
appropriately  be  called  "The  Lost  Bacillus."  A  few  years 
ago,  when  the  rubber  craze  was  at  its  height  and  every 
one  was  speculating  in  shares,  some  English  capitalists 
received  a  visit  from  an  American  inventor  who  claimed  to 
have  discovered  a  process  for  making  rubber  synthetically 
at  a  trifling  cost  from  turpentine,  through  the  agency  of 
a  bacillus  obtained  from  the  "mother"  of  vinegar.  Ex- 
periments undertaken  by  Barr  bore  out  all  he  claimed,  and 
a  powerful  company  was  organised.  Presently,  with  the 
exhaustion  of  the  original  barrel  of  vinegar,  brought  from 
somewhere  in  New  Jersey,  the  ability  to  make  rubber  in 
this  way  ceased.  It  was  then  that  a  hunt  was  undertaken 
arjd  search  was  made  for  a  specimen  of  cider  or  vinegar 
corresponding  with  the  original  supply,  but  without  suc- 
cess ;  even  specimens  of  San  Jose  scale  and  other  parasites 
were  obtained,  but  they  were  inefficient.  In  this  quest 
much  money  was  spent  in  sending  agents  to  scour  not  only 
New  Jersey  but  other  regions.  Finally  Mr.  Barr  with  the 
aid  of  bacteriologists  succeeded  in  isolating  what  they 
called  the  "bacillus  elastica"  from  another  source,  but  it 
was  found  that  the  cost  of  making  rubber  from  the  native 
bug  was  much  greater  than  the  cost  of  even  the  cheapest 
rubber,  so  the  company  went  to  pieces. 

Conservative  Britons  have  very  little  use  for  the  present 
Liberal  Party,  although  one  of  the  most  abused  members 
is  to-day  applauded  for  his  individual  work  in  supplying 
ammunition  and  other  patriotic  achievements.  I  was  told 
by  the  late  Lord  Onslow  that  in  the  great  fight  for  po- 
litical control  several  years  ago  this  individual  made  a 
speech  in  Wales  in  which  he  used  the  Welsh  tongue.    In 

200 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

it  he  vilified  the  late  King  whom  he  is  said  to  have  called  a 
"pauper  and  a  parasite  upon  the  nation."  An  English 
lady  present  who  understood  the  local  language  heard  this 
treasonable  utterance,  and  for  a  time  it  looked  as  if  the 
authorities  would  take  up  the  matter. 

Before  either  of  them  obtained  the  greatest  legal  hon- 
ours possible  in  Great  Britain,  not  excepting  the  Lord 
Chancellorship,  I  met  two  great  jurists,  both  of  whom 
were  afterward  Lord  Chief  Justice  within  a  short  time  of 
each  other.  One  was  then  Sir  Charles  Bussell,  after- 
wards Lord  Russell  of  Killowen;  the  other  Sir  Richard 
Webster,  who  later  became  Baron  Alver stone.  They  were 
both  Attorneys-General  at  different  periods,  and  the  lat- 
ter became  Master  of  the  Rolls.  In  1899  Lord  Russell 
retired,  and  was  succeeded  by  Baron  Alverstone,  who  re- 
mained upon  the  bench  until  a  year  or  two  ago,  when  he 
too  retired  because  of  ill-health.  Lord  Russell  was  a 
devout  Roman  Catholic  and  an  enthusiastic  home-ruler, 
appearing  as  counsel  for  the  defence  in  the  Parnell  case, 
and  it  was  largely  through  his  efforts  that  the  case  went 
favourably.  He  had  many  friends  in  this  country,  among 
them  the  lawyer  Bourke  Cockran,  who  was  with  him  in 
Sorrento  after  he  left  the  bench.  He  was  fond  of  sport 
and  frequented  the  Turf  Club  in  preference  to  any  other. 
Lord  Alverstone  often  appeared  with  Lord  Russell  in 
important  cases,  and  they  were  associated  not  only  in  the 
just  mentioned  Parnell  case,  but  in  the  Behring  Straits 
matter,  when  Lord  Russell  was  a  commissioner.  He  was 
a  talented  musician  and  composer,  and  an  all-around  ac- 
complished man,  as  well  as  an  engaging  companion. 

Both  of  these  great  lav*^yers  had  all  that  broadness  of 
mind  and  worldly  wisdom  combined  with  modesty,  kindli- 
ness and  simplicity  which  is  so  often  developed  by  experi- 
ence and  responsibility  such  as  theirs.    In  some  respects 

201 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

they  resembled  my  friend  Edward  Douglas  White,  the 
beloved  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  I  may  be  pardoned  for  reproducing,  in  part,  a 
letter  which  illustrates  this.  I  had  met  Judge  White  some 
years  before  his  elevation  to  the  highest  Court  in  this 
country,  and  upon  his  appointment  wrote  a  few  words  of 
congratulation,  recalling  myself  to  him,  in  reply  to  which 
he  sent  me  this  graceful  letter: 

Dear.  Allan: 

What  a  good  memory  and  generous  heart  you  have  to  write 
me  so  kind  a  letter.  As  I  do  not  intend  to  give  up  anything  which 
is  very  pleasing  to  me,  I  venture  to  say  that  you  are  mistaken 

in  recalling  yourself  to  me  by  mentioning  N L . 

Long  before  that  it  was  my  good  fortune  and  privilege  to  meet 
you.  I  trust  it  may  be  given  to  me  to  so  discharge  my  duty  as 
not  to  fall  below  a  proper  standard. 

Faithfully  yours, 

E.  D.  White. 

One  of  my  legal  friends  in  London  was  Montagu  Wil- 
liams, a  brilliant  man  who  had  been  obliged  to  abandon 
his  important  and  trying  work  to  accept  an  appointment 
which  had  been  found  for  him  as  a  police  magistrate.  He 
was  greatly  interested  in  my  own  work,  and  one  day  in- 
vited me  to  sit  on  the  bench  with  him  and  hear  some  cases 
tried.  These  were  of  a  petty  kind,  but  none  was  too  in- 
significant to  engage  his  careful  interest,  and  I  saw  the 
spectacle  of  a  leading  London  lawyer  threshing  out  the 
merits  of  a  simple  assault.  Oh,  how  different  from  what 
I  knew  actually  existed  in  New  York  at  the  time,  when  a 
notorious  judicial  mountebank  was  giving  out  "tin  dollars 
or  tin  days"  without  listening  to  any  evidence  for  or  ex- 
cuse by  the  defendant.  One  of  the  cases  in  the  London 
court  was  that  of  a  coster  who  had  been  brutally  maltreat- 

202 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDOlSr 

ing  his  donkey.  After  hearing  the  poUceman  who  made 
the  arrest,  and  the  man  himself,  Mr.  WiUiams  adjourned 
the  hearing  so  that  he  might  personally  examine  the  don- 
key, which  he  did,  taking  me  with  him  to  a  particularly 
dangerous  London  slum. 

Montagu  Williams  had  appeared  a  few  years  before  in 
the  celebrated  Mordaunt  divorce  action,  in  which  the  then 
Prince  of  Wales  figured  and  testified.  The  plaintiff  had 
brought  suit  for  the  usual  cause,  but  it  transpired  that 
Lady  Mordaunt,  the  defendant,  suffered  from  that  form 
of  insanity  incident  to  childbearing,  and  as  the  result  of 
a  delusion  accused  herself  of  improprieties.  Despite  the 
fact  that  at  the  first  trial  the  judge  and  jury  both  found 
for  her,  the  case  was  appealed  and  tried  a  second  time, 
and  her  husband  was  granted  a  divorce,  the  question  of 
insanity  being  altogether  eliminated,  much  to  the  surprise 
of  every  one.  This  case  established  the  ruling  in  England 
that,  though  a  woman  was  insane  when  she  committed 
adultery,  her  mental  disorder  was  no  excuse. 

I  have  during  all  these  years  seen  much  of  the  English 
bar,  and  count  among  my  friends  to-day  such  active 
workers  as  Charles  Gill,  K.  C,  and  Marshall  Hall,  K.  C, 
both  of  whose  names  are  connected  with  some  of  the 
most  important  criminal  trials  of  recent  years.  The  lat- 
ter, besides  being  an  able  barrister,  is  an  expert  in  old 
snuff  boxes,  silver,  and  miniatures. 

As  I  have  said,  the  fairness  and  dignity  of  most  Eng- 
lish judges  is  remarkable,  and,  all  things  considered,  one 
can  get  full  justice,  though  the  methods  sometimes  seem 
exasperating.  It  cannot  be  said  that  all  those  who  sit 
upon  the  bench  are  dignified,  and  one  notable  example  of 
a  really  able  man  who  is  a  dreadful  "jokesmith"  occurs 
to  me  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Justice  Darling,  who  does 
not  hesitate  to  interrupt  a  trial  with  a  more  or  less  feeble 

203 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

witticism,  or  to  perpetrate  a  far-fetched  pun.  He  has 
gained  for  himself  not  only  the  disrespect  of  many  impa- 
tient lawyers,  but  the  ridicule  of  the  press  as  well,  and 
one  of  the  characters  in  the  Great  Adventure  manages  to 
embellish  his  lines  with  a  sarcastic  gag  at  Darhng's  ex- 
pense. 

Sir  George  Lewis,  whom  I  met  about  twenty-five  years 
ago,  was  a  physically  unimpressive  person.  He  was  an 
astute  Jewish  lawyer,  however,  who  was  said  to  have 
had  money-lenders  among  his  clients,  and  was  a  very 
shrev/d  and  popular  solicitor.  His  kind  of  practice  was 
like  that  of  the  late  firm  of  Howe  and  Hummel  in  New 
York,  although  conducted  on  wholly  different  lines.  There 
was  no  better  known  character  in  sexual  litigation  in  the 
world,  his  clients  indulging  in  breach  of  promise,  divorce, 
and  other  actions  of  the  kind,  but  a  great  many  of  them 
were  settled  out  of  court.  He  possessed  a  great  deal  of 
subtlety  and  resourcefulness,  and  made  himself  extremely 
useful  to  a  number  of  people,  including  the  late  King 
Edward  the  Seventh,  who  liked  him  exceedingly.  There 
was  something  rather  interesting  in  finding  the  man  who 
held  so  many  family  secrets,  and  of  whom  so  many  peo- 
ple were  in  dread,  really  showing  the  kindest  qualities  at 
home.  Upon  the  occasion  when  I  dined  there,  I  found 
him  a  gentle,  weU-bred  person,  quite  devoted  to  his  fam- 
ily and  very  domestic  and  natural.  Before  his  death,  five 
years  ago,  he  carefully  destroyed  all  his  notes,  letters  and 
private  papers :  it  is  alarming  to  think  what  consternation 
might  have  been  created  in  English  society  had  he  failed 
to  do  so.  In  speaking  of  the  professional  secrets  of  Sir 
George,  it  was  said  that  "he  knew  enough  to  hang  half  of 
London." 

I  naturally  came  in  contact  in  England  with  a  large 
number  of  my  profession,  among  them  my  early  friend, 

204. 


SIR  JAMES   CRICHTON   BROWNE,    M.D.,   LL.D.,   F.R.S. 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

Sir  James  Crichton-Browne,  brother  of  Balfour  Browne, 
the  leading  member  of  the  Parliamentary  bar.  Sir  James 
had  been  the  Lord  Chancellor's  Visitor  in  Lunacy  for 
many  years,  and  his  duties  compelled  him  to  visit  every 
insane  ward  in  Chancery,  as  well  as  many  other  feeble- 
minded persons.  He  has  therefore  probably  seen  more 
insane  people  than  any  man  in  the  world,  and  is  emi- 
nently an  expert.  He  is  now  at  the  head  of  the  Lunacy 
Commission,  and  incidentally  busies  himself  with  matters 
of  public  importance. 

I  owe  to  this  dear  old  friend  a  debt  of  gratitude,  for 
when  my  first  treatise  was  published  and  I  was  an  un- 
known young  man,  it  was  virulently  attacked  by  an  older 
professional  rival,  who  secretly  wrote  no  less  than  seven 
venomous  and  lying  "reviews"  which,  owing  to  his  in- 
fluence, were  published  in  as  many  American  journals. 
I  found  them  allin  a  neat  pile  on  my  office  table  when 
I  returned  from  my  summer  vacation,  with  the  offensive 
notices  marked  in  red  pencil,  but  at  the  bottom  of  all, 
like  the  last  occupant  of  Pandora's  box,  was  the  great 
EfUglish  periodical,  Brain,  with  a  long  and  extremely  eulo- 
gistic review  signed  "James  Crichton-Browne,"  who  did 
not  even  know  me  by  reputation.  Among  other  pleasant 
things  were  the  following  I's  "This  is  unquestionably  the 
best  and  most  complete  text-book  of  nervous  diseases 
that  has  yet  appeared,  and  were  international  jealousy  in 
scientific  affairs  at  all  possible,  we  might  be  excused  for 
a  feeling  of  chagrin  that  it  should  be  of  American  parent- 
age." Sir  James,  who  is  a  good  correspondent,  in  later 
years  wrote  me  from  his  summer  home  in  Scotland: 
"This  letter  is  dated  from  a  quiet  little  cottage  I  have 
in  the  land  of  Burns  and  Carlyle,  and  to  which  I  retreat 
now  and  then.  Pray,  come  to  see  me  there.  I  can  prom- 
ise you  good  oatmeal  and  whiskey,  and  we  would  visit 

g05 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Craigenputtock  and  Ecclefechan  together."  So  far  I 
have  been  unable  to  respond  to  the  invitation  of  this  de- 
hghtful  companion  who,  like  myself,  has  highland  blood. 

Another  old  friend  is  Sir  Lauder  Brunton,  who  studied 
in  Vienna  with  my  classmate,  the  late  Dr.  George  L. 
Peabody  of  New  York,  and  with  that  wonderfully  learned 
Northumberland  doctor,  the  late  Milner  Fothergill,  who 
not  only  had  the  reputation  of  being  most  receptive  in 
accumulating  medical  facts,  but  was  a  notorious  consumer 
of  Austrian  beer. 

Sir  Lauder  is  at  present  the  leader  of  his  profession, 
and  has  written  much  about  therapeutics.  He  it  was 
who  was  invited  some  years  ago  by  an  enormously  rich 
and  progressive  Indian  Rajah  to  go  to  India  and  settle 
for  all  time  the  controversy  as  to  the  matter  of  chloroform 
anesthesia.  He  travelled  en  prince^  and  completed  his 
object  most  effectively,  seeing  meanwhile  a  side  of  Indian 
life  denied  to  most  Europeans.  He  is  very  fond  of  hunt- 
ing for  and  unearthing  ancient  remedies,  and  I  lately 
found  him  reintroducing  to  the  profession  Galen's  original 
remedy  for  the  prolongation  of  life,  which  was  nothing  else 
than  our  old  friend  saltpeter;  but  Brunton  found  that  it 
must  be  impure  to  reduce  arterio-sclerosis,  lower  arterial 
tension,  and  lengthen  the  days  of  the  prematurely  old. 
When  he  printed  his  address  upon  "Longevity,"  delivered 
before  the  Manchester  Medical  Society,  he  gave  me  a 
copy,  endorsed,  "Dr.  Maclane  Hamilton,  from  his  old 
friend,  the  Author."  I  have  known  him  very  intimately 
for  many  years,  and  have  never  met  a  more  diligent 
student,  for  though  over  seventy  to-day,  he  is  constantly 
at  work  at  the  new  instruments  he  has  invented  for  detect- 
ing the  inroads  of  disease.  He  literally,  until  a  year  or 
two  ago,  worked  from  morning  till  night,  and  after  his 
consultation  hours  were  over  jumped  into  his  brougham 

206 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

and  hurried  over  the  river  to  Saint  Thomas's  Hospital, 
his  only  luncheon  being  a  handful  of  almonds  and  raisins, 
which  his  butler  put  daily  into  his  overcoat  pocket. 

At  his  table  I  met,  among  other  interesting  medical 
men.  Sir  Victor  Horsley,  who  has  the  reputation  of  being 
a  very  independent  and  not  always  a  popular  man.  While 
he  is  regarded  as  probably  the  most  noted  and  experi- 
enced operator  in  brain  surgery  in  the  world  (except- 
ing perhaps  our  own  Harvey  Gushing),  he  finds  time  for 
crusades  against  alcohol,  and  has  battles  royal  with  the 
anti-vivisectionists.  He  enters  body  and  soul  into  public 
work,  and  I  well  remember  the  occasion  of  a  general  elec- 
tion when  his  house  was  covered  with  lively  caricatures 
and  other  political  posters,  so  that  it  must  have  astonished 
his  patients.  I  am  told  by  one  of  his  former  students 
that  his  interest  in  temperance  is  so  great  that  he  devotes 
himself  at  present  ahnost  entirely  to  public  lectures;  as 
he  is  a  convincing  speaker,  his  work  will  do  a  great  deal 
of  good  in  a  land  where  there  has  been  so  much  drunken- 
ness.* Sir  Victor's  father  was  a  mid- Victorian  artist 
whose  methods  resembled  those  of  Frith,  for  they  both 
produced  realistic  pictures  of  race  courses,  railway  stations 
and  large  groups  of  persons.  At  one  time  the  elder  Hors- 
ley awakened  to  the  realisation  of  the  supposed  immorality 
in  art,  and  engineered  a  propaganda,  the  object  of  which 
was  to  have  an  act  of  Parliament  passed  which  would  do 
away  with  the  occupation  of  the  nude  model.  It  was 
unsuccessful,  and  he  was  afterwards  called  by  the  unfeel- 
ing:   "Clothes-Horsley." 

Bernard  Shaw's  opinion  of  medical  men  is,  I  am  told, 
not  the  highest,  and  this  is  due  to  what  is  said  to  have 
been  their  inattentive  treatment  of  a  serious  illness  of 

*  Note :  Since  the  above  was  written  I  learn  that  this  brave  medical 
oflScer  died  from  sunstroke  in  Mesopotamia, 

207 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

which  he  was  the  victim.  In  the  Doctor's  Dilemma  he 
unmercifully  ridicules  three  or  four  types,  and  good- 
naturedly  attacked  Sir  Almaroth  Wright,*  who,  I  am 
told,  is  really  one  of  his  dearest  friends,  but  this  is  an- 
other Shauian  paradox.  I  recognise  the  other  characters 
under  a  thinly  veiled  description.  It  is  said  that  one  of 
them  is  Sir  Dyce  Duckworth,  who  holds  several  honour- 
ary  positions  at  Court,  and  he  apparently  enjoys  this 
privilege  to  the  fullest.  I  casually  met  Sir  Dyce  many 
years  ago,  and  found  him  to  be  a  suave  physician  of  the 
older  type. 

Medical  honours  are  often  given  in  England  and  other 
countries  for  reasons  other  than  professional  distinction, 
and  (as  upon  various  occasions)  the  personal  interest  of  a 
Sovereign  or  Cabinet  Minister  may  do  the  work.  I  recall 
the  case  of  a  well-known  surgeon  who  was  knighted  for 
the  treatment  of  a  simple  and  not  altogether  interesting 
malady  in  the  person  of  a  dissipated  young  prince,  which 
required  no  skill  whatever.  Again,  we  meet  with  cases 
where  a  richly  deserved  mark  of  approval  is  bestowed: 
every  one  was  delighted  when  that  brilliant  international 
physician.  Sir  William  Osier,  was  made  a  baronet,  and 
Kegius  Professor  at  Oxford.  It  was  a  matter  of  great 
regret  to  me  not  to  go  to  Edinburgh  after  I  had  been 
proposed  by  the  late  Sir  Grainger  Stewart  and  elected  as 
a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  for  Scotch  scientific 
gatherings  are  apt  to  be  pleasant.  I  recall  here  another 
occasion  when  I  received  the  honour  of  Doctor  of  Laws 
from  a  flourishing  and  very  old  American  College. 
Through  a  certain  absent-mindedness  which  I  inherit  from 
my  father  and  grandfather,  I  retired  to  my  seat  among 
the  other  victims  who  were  awaiting  their  turn,  without 

*  In  The  Doctor's  Dilemma^  Sir  Colense  Ridjer  is  probably  in- 
tended for  Sir  Almaroth  Wright. 

g08 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

staying  for  the  investure  of  the  hood.  The  truth  is,  I 
was  so  appalled  by  the  redundant  Latin  compliments  of 
the  eloquent  President  that  I  felt  a  desire  to  escape  and 
hide  my  head.  My  first  return  to  full  consciousness  was 
when  the  Dean  hurried  from  the  platform  and  placed  the 
decoration  over  my  shoulders  while  the  large  class  of  young 
men  burst  into  roars  of  laughter. 

I  may  be  pardoned  for  referring  to  a  characteristically 
British  product — ^the  fashionable  consultant.  Most  of 
these  men  have  abandoned  their  early  useful  professional 
study,  reading,  and  research.  Many  of  them  have  been 
the  recipients  of  special  marks  of  royal  favour  while 
others  have  been  made  by  accident.  Again,  by  the  aid 
of  newspapers  or  of  advertising  (which  I  do  them  the 
justice  to  say  they  have  not  always  encouraged)  they 
have  had  greatness  of  a  certain  kind  thrust  upon  them. 
Every  one  must  remember  the  sensational  story  of  the 
treatment  of  the  father  of  the  present  King,  who,  when 
Prince  of  Wales,  contracted  typhoid,  and  when  at  death's 
door  had  the  living  and  quivering  flesh  of  a  recently-killed 
sheep  applied  to  his  abdomen.  This  may  or  may  not  have 
been  true,  but  it  made  Sir  William  Gull,  who  before  his 
death  was  the  leading  English  consultant.  England,  how- 
ever, has  not  the  monopoly  of  such  men,  and  I  have  known 
many  at  home  who  by  their  "beautifully  expressive  eyes," 
or  their  "wonderful  magnetism,"  or  some  other  God-like 
quality,  heralded  with  the  exaggerations  of  a  hysterical 
patient,  have  acquired  the  success  denied  a  more  modest 
and  better-equipped  doctor. 

There  are  several  consultants  not  more  than  a  mile 
from  the  centre  of  Mayfair  who  are  largely  sought  for 
by  Americans,  one  being  a  very  large  and  pompous  in- 
dividual who  has  possibly  "just  come  from  seeing  the  dear 

^09 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

little  princess,"  and  who  in  appearance  resembles  a  but- 
ler, and  in  speech  has  the  unction  of  a  bishop. 

My  frequent  ocean  crossings  have  brought  me  in  con- 
tact with  many  interesting  people,  not  the  least  agreeable 
of  whom  were  the  men  who  commanded  the  ships.  One 
of  the  first  friends  of  this  kind  that  I  met  was  Captain 
Watkins  of  the  City  of  Brussels,  who  shortly  before  I 
crossed  with  him,  had  had  the  bad  luck  to  be  "forty  days 
and  forty  nights"  at  sea,  his  passengers  being  a  ship- 
load of  clergymen  and  priests  who  were  pilgrims  to  Rome. 
Long  after  the  ship  was  given  up  they  all  made  port, 
bored  to  Heath  with  each  other  and  much  the  worse  for 
wear.  The  captain  had  the  misfortune  later  to  run  the 
City  of  Paris  upon  the  Manacles  owing  to  some  unavoid- 
able accident.  The  old  Inman  captains  were  good  sail- 
ors but  rough  men,  though  not  given  to  profanity  except 
under  the  most  aggravating  circumstances.  I  remember 
an  incident  that  was  an  excuse,  if  ever  there  was  one,  for 
an  indulgence  in  this  method  of  relief.  Once  when  the 
City  of  Richmond  was  approaching  the  Irish  coast  we  saw 
the  light  from  a  ship  apparently  on  fire.  She  was  many 
miles  to  the  north,  but  Captain  Leech,  who  was  noted 
for  the  many  rescues  he  had  made,  changed  the  ship's 
course,  and  we  approached  the  vessel,  which  was  appar- 
ently aflame  from  stem  to  stern.  As  we  neared  her  we 
saw  a  man  nonchalantly  standing  in  the  fore-shrouds 
smoking  a  pipe,  and  when  hailed  he  replied  that  they 
were  "in  need  of  nothing."  She  was  a  whaler,  and  her 
crew  were  engaged  in  trying  out  blubber,  the  caldron  be- 
ing on  the  main  deck  and  supplied  with  refuse  blubber, 
which  made  a  great  flare.  Never  again  have  I  heard  such 
a  flood  of  marine  profanity  as  issued  from  the  lips  of 
this  ordinarily  smooth-speaking  officer. 

Captain  Richard  Owen  Jones  is  a  Welshman  in  the 

210 


MY  LIFE  IN  LONDON 

White  Star-Dominion  service,  who  has  the  deserved  repu- 
tation of  spinning  more  picturesque  yarns  than  any  man 
afloat.  He  imposes  upon  the  lady  passengers  especially, 
for  he  is  a  consummate  actor  and  always  tells  his  wonder- 
ful stories  with  a  straight  face.  When  I  last  crossed 
with  him  he  seriously  told  a  small  tableful  of  people  about 
the  little  harbour  near  his  Welsh  home  on  the  sea  coast, 
the  mouth  of  which  was  blocked  by  the  Allen  Line  steamer 
Missouri  that  at  some  time  had  been  wrecked  there.  Cap- 
tain Owen-Jones,  according  to  his  story,  bought  a  wire 
hawser  and  stretched  it  across  the  mouth  of  the  harbour 
to  imprison  two  whales,  who  eventually  became  so  tame 
that  they  would  eat  out  of  one's  hand  and  come  at  the 
sound  of  a  bugle.  According  to  this  veracious  narrator, 
an  American  inventor  appeared  with  a  milking  machine, 
and  fresh  whale  milk  was  a  delicacy  supplied  thereafter 
to  the  neighbourhood.  They  were  great  pets,  and  the 
London  and  Northwestern  Kailway  ran  special  trains 
down  to  a  siding  it  had  built  and  carried  excursionists  who 
fed  the  animals  on  buns.  The  captain  further  said  that 
one  day  when  coming  up  the  channel  opposite  his  place  he 
saw  two  whales  sporting  at  some  distance  from  the  ship, 
and  when  he  told  the  bugle  boy  to  blow  a  familiar  call  they 
came  alongside  and  were  without  remonstrance  taken 
home.  According  to  Captain  Jones,  the  exact  name  of 
the  spot  where  the  whales  were  to  be  found  was  "Tre 
Arthur  Bay,  LlanfairpwUgywmfyllgogerchwyrndrobwll- 
llaanderliogogogolh,  Anglesey."  If  any  one  has  any 
doubts  about  its  correctness  he  may  address  Captain  R.  O. 
Jones,  Llyswen-Bodorgan,  Anglesey.  The  Captain  is 
now  commanding  the  transport  Northland,  which  is  car- 
rying troops  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  I  hope  he  may 
live  for  many  a  day  to  humbug,  and  in  his  quaint  way 
delight,  countless  future  passengers. 

211 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

A  year  ago  I  made  my  fiftieth  crossing  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  despite  the  dreadful  English  climate  I  find  London 
always  an  agreeable  place  to  which  to  return,  and  Fred- 
erick Lockyer's  description  of  one  delightful  locality  ap- 
plies to  many  others: 

"Piccadilly  shops,  palaces,  bustle,  and  breeze, 
The  whirring  of  wheels,  and  the  murmur  of  trees; 
By  night  or  by  day,  whether  noisy  or  stilly, 
Whatever  my  mood  is,  I  love  Piccadilly." 

Old  as  I  am,  I  must  say  that  I  ever  feel  the  call,  and  if 
I  am  in  need  of  absolute  rest  of  mind  and  body,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  I  can  always  find  it  in  London  in  the 
springtime,  when  Nature  is  at  her  best,  and  when  there 
are  a  thousand  things  to  make  one  feel  the  joy  of  living. 


212 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   HUNT   FOR  THE   ANTIQUE 

Treasure  Trove — An  Interesting  Buddha — American  Picture  Col- 
lectors— Old  Pictures  Without  Histories — Expertism — London 
Experts — Chemistry  and  the  Microscope — Prof.  Laurie's  Re- 
searches— Identification  of  Old  Masters — Wilhelm  von  Bode,  a 
Great  German  Expert — Old  Furniture;  False  Chippendale,  Shera- 
ton, Adam  and  Pergolesi — Experience  with  the  Custom  House — ^A 
Smart  Trick — Old  Prints — London  Sculptors,  Sir  George  Framp- 
ton — Caricaturists,  Max  Beerbohm,  Leslie  Ward — ^Anecdotes — ^An 
Exacting  Art  Patron. 

I  HAVE  always  had  a  keen  love  for  old  pictures  and  antique 
furniture,  and  one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  going 
abroad  has  been  to  browse  about  in  the  little  shops,  some 
of  which  were  in  out  of  the  way  localities,  and  therein  to 
make  friends.  It  was  also  satisfactory  to  have  my  good 
luck  and  judgment  in  purchases  confirmed,  for  I  some- 
times found  duplicates  of  the  rare  things  I  had  picked 
up  in  great  museums.  For  instance,  in  the  Cluny  Museum 
I  discovered  the  replica  of  a  piece  I  owned — a  wonderful 
painting  on  copper  of  Anne  of  Austria,  with  detachable 
mica  films  superimposed,  each  containing  a  rude  painting 
of  some  quaint  costume  with  a  space  left  for  the  painted 
face  on  the  copper.  At  the  South  Kensington  museum  I 
not  only  found  rare  Gothic  brasses  with  inscription  iden- 
tical with  some  I  owned,  but  a  huge  mediaeval  German  lock 
which  was  the  exact  counterpart  of  one  in  my  possession. 
I  bought  a  large  Buddha  at  the  celebrated  Binkley  sale. 

213 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

It  was  undoubtedly  genuine,  very  old  and  covered  with  a 
black  deposit  of  incense  after  centuries  of  exposure  in 
some  temple,  but  ill-informed  critics  would  not  admit  its 
antiquity.  Many  years  after  it  came  into  my  possession, 
however,  I  left  it  in  a  place  where  it  was  drenched  with 
rain.  The  consequence  was  that  it  fell  apart,  and  in  the 
interior  I  found  many  rolls  and  sheets  of  prayers  all  in  a 
form  of  script  that  probably  antedated  the  tenth  century. 

I  have  picked  up  pictures  and  wood  carvings  in  the  old 
days  for  a  few  dollars  or  francs  that  were  quite  valuable 
examples,  but  aU  is  now  changed,  and  the  trail  of  the 
dealer  is  everywhere ;  the  golden  opportunities  were  those 
of  a  quarter  of  a  century  or  more  ago. 

One  of  my  artistic  friends  bought,  in  the  seventies  in 
Northern  Bavaria,  a  httle  wooden  statuette  of  Saint  Ehza- 
beth,  a  marvel  in  modelling  and  colour,  for  less  than  fifty 
dollars.  This  he  sold  a  few  years  ago  to  an  appreciative 
and  rich  collector  for  $15,000,  and  doubtless  there  are 
many  other  such  finds  even  now  to  be  made,  despite  the 
activity  of  the  commercial  antiquarians.  Most  of  them 
really  know  very  little  about  art  of  any  kind,  though  they 
are  keen  enough  about  their  business,  and  acquire  the 
faculty  of  working  upon  the  ignorant  and  impulsive 
buyer. 

Most  people  fond  of  old  things  go  through  the  period 
of  being  educated,  and  usually  pay  relatively  high  prices 
for  their  first  acquisitions;  but  they  get  rid  of  the  trash 
later  and  buy,  and  buy  again.  Such  an  one  was  the  late 
Benjamin  Altman,  a  patient  of  mine  at  one  time,  whom  I 
well  remember  as  at  first  having  a  little  outdoor  shop  on 
Sixth  Avenue,  where  he  sold  thread,  needles  and  other 
notions,  and  by  industry,  self-denial  and  intelligence  pros- 
pered and  became  enormously  rich.  When  he  first  col- 
lected I  do  not  know;  but  before  he  died  he  had  accumu- 

214 


THE  HUNT  FOR  THE  ANTIQUE 

lated,  as  is  known,  some  of  the  greatest  pictures  in  the 
world,  including  an  extraordinary  collection  of  Rem- 
brandts.  Altman  was  a  lonely  man,  and  had  quarrelled 
with  some  of  his  next  of  kin.  He  had  no  one  depending 
upon  him,  and  very  few  friends,  but  a  great  many  sy- 
cophants who  surrounded  him  for  purposes  of  gain.  He 
was  so  clever  as  to  see  through  all  this,  but  in  the  end  pro- 
vided generously  and  impartially  for  all  his  former  loyal 
employes.  At  a  certain  period  of  his  success,  he  deter- 
mined to  collect  works  of  art  and  found  several  people 
who  acted  as  his  mentors,  telling  him  what  he  ought  to 
buy  or  purchasing  for  him.  His  first  efforts  were  not 
the  happiest  and  as  a  result  he  got  together  a  quantity 
of  stuff  of  doubtful  authenticity  and  merit.  As  in  other 
cases,  he  paid  for  his  experience,  and  did  not  complain; 
but  here  his  business  methods  appeared — he  had  learned 
what  was  the  best,  and  parted  as  quietly  as  possible  with 
the  poor  things,  and  thereafter,  till  he  died,  bought  only 
examples  of  great  merit. 

Most  collectors  begin  in  this  way.  The  late  William  H. 
Vanderbilt  was  a  comparatively  uneducated  man,  and 
knew  nothing,  and  probably  cared  less,  about  art;  but  he 
must  have  a  picture  gallery  so  he  depended  upon  the  skill 
of  the  late  Samuel  P.  Avery,  an  all-around  collector.  P. 
A.  B.  Widener,  whose  early  life  was  spent  in  a  Philadel- 
phia butcher's  shop,  relied  upon  advisers  who  were  more  or 
less  intelligent  and  competent.  He  apparently  bought 
afterward  largely  those  paintings  which  had  an  established 
pedigree,  and  a  fixed,  or  at  least  a  minimum,  value.  He 
paid  the  highest  prices  if  he  wanted  a  picture,  and  was 
not  always  discriminating  about  the  merit  of  the  particu- 
lar example.  His  great  Van  Dyck,  which  cost  him  a  half 
million  dollars,  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  works  of  art 
in  the  United  States. 

215 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

The  comparison  of  a  picture  having  a  well-vouched-for 
history  to  "a  woman  with  a  past"  is  not  a  happy  analogy, 
but,  nevertheless,  a  true  one,  and  there  is  many  a  derehct 
and  unidentified  real  "old  master"  whose  wanderings  have 
destroyed  its  value  and  reputation.     An  authentic  por- 
trait, say  by  Hoppner,  which  has  been  in  one  family  for 
one  hundred  years  since  it  was  painted,  no  matter  how 
indifferent  an  example  (although  it  would  be  difficult  to 
conceive  of  an  uninteresting  picture  by  this  great  artist), 
has  a  value  that  is  greater  than  an  undoubtedly  genuine 
picture  which  has  drifted  hither  and  thither  with  vague  or 
lapsed  ownership,  even  though  it  possesses  inherent  and 
recognised  merit.    It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  owner  of 
the  latter  kind  of  painting  finds  most  difficulty  in  estab- 
lishing for  it  a  reputation.    The  first  kind  of  picture  gets 
a  cachet  from  the  expert,  for  he  is  saved  much  trouble.    I 
knew  of  the  case  of  an  undoubted  Van  Dyck,  painted 
during  the  artist's  stay  in  Genoa,  where  he  produced  the 
Balbi  and  other  important  family  portraits.    It  was  at  a 
time  when  he  was  poor  and  had  no  pupils,  and  no  incen- 
tive to  let  others  work  for  him  while  he  merely  put  on 
the  finishing  touches  and  added  his  signature  as  it  is  said 
he  did  later  when  in  the  employ  of  Charles  the  First. 
This  canvas  had  fallen  on  evil  days  and  when  it  came  into 
the  possession  of  its  late  owner,  he  (convinced  that  it  was 
genuine,  but  with  no  proof)  made  the  usual  investigation, 
calling  in  well-known  experts  in  the  United  States  and 
Europe.     These  included  portrait  painters,  dealers,  re- 
storers and  the  heads  of  great  museums.    Without  going 
over  a  wearisome  experience  that  extended  over  a  year, 
the  results  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :    Of  ten  experts, 
six  gave  absolute  favourable  opinion  as  to  its  being  a 
veritable  and  good  example;  two  were  not  sure  and  two 
said  it  was  not  a  Van  Dyck,  but  the  work  of  Lambert 

216 


THE  HUNT  FOR  THE  ANTIQUE 

Sustermann,  "who  had  painted  Van  Dyck  from  life,"  and 
was  an  intimate  friend.  (The  value  of  this  latter  opinion 
may  be  estimated  when  it  is  shown  that  this  Sustermann 
died  in  1566,  just  twenty-three  years  before  Van  Dyck  was 
born.*)  One  artist  said  that  a  peculiar  crook  of  the  little 
finger  in  the  disputed  picture  could  not  possibly  have  been 
the  work  of  its  great  painter,  but  a  photograph  of  the 
Mulihiere  in  the  Uffizi  gallery,  a  pedigree  picture,  was 
found  with  the  same  bad  work  shown  in  the  drawing  of 
the  hand.  This  same  gentleman  positively  declared  that 
the  rose  on  one  side  of  the  subject's  head  had  been  added 
in  recent  years  by  a  restorer,  but  the  great  expert,  Wil- 
helm  von  Bode,  the  head  of  the  Friedrich  Museum  in 
Berlin,  did  not  agree  with  him. 

Two  of  the  most  reliable  and  intelligent  experts  of  old 
pictures  in  London  are  Colin  Agnew  of  the  great  house 
of  picture  dealers,  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
before  he  went  to  the  trenches  in  1914<;  and  Richard  Nor- 
ton, an  American,  who  has  done  such  noble  work  in  the 
war  in  the  Ambulance  Corps.  Besides  these,  older  men 
whose  reputation  is  world-wide  are:  Claude  Phillips, 
Esq.,  Sir  Charles  Holroyd  and  Hawes  Turner,  Esq.,  of 
the  National  Gallery. 

A  very  clever  man  is  Prof.  R.  P.  Laurie,  President  of 
the  Heriot-Watt  College  of  Edinburgh,  and  chemist  to 
the  Royal  Academy.  For  years  Laurie  has  laboriously 
worked  and  experimented  for  the  purpose  of  determining 

*  There  seems  to  have  been  a  great  deal  of  uncertainty  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  "Sustermanns."  One  was  known  as  "Lambert  Suavius" 
or  "Sustermann";  again  as  "Lambert  the  Lombard,"  and  again  as 
"Lombard  Lambert."  Justus  Sustermann,  or  Sustermans  (1597-1681), 
was  a  contemporary  of  Van  Dyck,  who  painted  Ms  (Sustermann's) 
portrait.  It  was  Sustermann  who  painted  many  of  the  Medici  family. 
I  do  not  think  his  work  can  be  mistaken  for  that  of  Van  Dyck,  for 
his  technique  is  different  and  he  uses  blue  tones  in  painting  flesh. 

217 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

by  scientific  means  the  identity  of  old  paintings,  and  this 
he  does  in  two  ways:  by  investigating  minute  quantities 
of  colour,  medium  and  varnish,  and  by  a  micro-photo- 
graphic study  of  the  brush  work.  His  results  are  as- 
tounding. He  has  determined  the  period  at  which  par- 
ticular colours  were  used  for  the  first  time,  and  presents 
a  table.  If,  for  instance,  the  claim  is  made  that  a  certain 
oil  painting  has  been  produced  prior  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  presence  of  Prus- 
sian blue  is  found,  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  fake  or  copy 
because  this  particular  pigment  was  not  used  until  after 
1704.  This  is  but  one  evidence  and  there  are  often  others. 
He  found  that  a  picture  painted  in  tempera  in  the  fifteenth 
century  with  blues  peculiar  to  that  period  had  been  re- 
touched with  oil  colours  containing  pigments  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  The  use  of  certain  blues  and  greens  bears 
close  relation  to  the  period  and  also  to  the  habit  of  the 
artist.  It  is  shown  by  Laurie  that  Teniers  used  smalt 
blue,  Boucher,  blue-verditer,  and  Watteau,  verdigris  and 
ultramarine ;  so  it  can  be  seen  how  good  a  detective  chem- 
istry may  sometimes  be  in  settling  a  question  of  identity 
and  perhaps  veracity. 

The  photographic  enlargement  of  an  oil  painting  will 
enable  one  to  see  at  a  glance  what  the  technic  of  the  artist 
has  been.  There  is  as  much  individuality  in  this  matter 
as  in  handwriting,  and  the  unconscious  method  of  Wat- 
teau, for  instance,  is  different  from  all  his  imitators  and 
copyists.  Subconscious  and  habitual  methods  are  shown 
which  cannot  be  reproduced.  In  this  connection  atten- 
tion may  be  called  to  the  value  of  the  microscope  in  iden- 
tifying not  only  penmanship  but  even  typewritten  sheets, 
for  an  enlargement  of  the  original  shows  all  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  writer.  Laurie  has  reproduced  the  details  of 
foliage  of  various  artists,  and  it  can  be  seen  how  a  picture 

218 


THE  HUNT  FOK  THE  ANTIQUE 

viewed  with  the  unaided  eye  conveys  an  entirely  different 
impression  when  greatly  magnified. 

When  in  Berlin  during  the  early  summer  of  1914  I  met 
Professor  Wilhelm  von  Bode,  who  is  to-day  recognised  as 
the  possessor  of  more  knowledge  of  art  than  any  one  in  the 
world.  He  is  absolutely  free  from  commercialism,  a 
man  of  gentle,  sympathetic  nature,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
is  indeed  depressed  and  horror-stricken  at  the  destruction 
of  great  works  of  art  by  the  soldiers  of  the  nation  to  which 
he  belongs.  His  simphcity  and  directness  are  those  of  a 
great  and  learned  man.  He  is  a  tall  person,  with  a  light 
brown  beard  and  moustache,  has  easy  manners,  and  is 
most  enthusiastic  about  his  work.  As  a  rule  his  judgments 
are  correct,  but  most  people  are  familiar  with  the  story  of 
the  wax  medallion  which  he  and  the  Kaiser  a  year  or 
two  ago  declared  to  be  a  genuine  antique.  Upon  ex- 
amination a  scrap  of  a  comparatively  recent  English 
newspaper  was  found  imbedded  in  the  waxen  body,  show- 
ing it  to  be  a  fraud. 

At  the  Friedrich  Museum  I  also  met  Professor  Krauss, 
a  very  peculiar  looking  man  with  an  extraordinary  dome- 
like or  oxycephalic  head.  He  was  the  official  restorer, 
and  at  the  time  was  engaged  upon  an  enormous  Rubens 
belonging  to  the  Duchess  of  Rutland.  One  wonders  if 
this  was  ever  restored  to  England  after  the  war  broke  out 
two  months  later. 

There  is  very  little  real  old  furniture  to  be  obtained  at 
present,  either  in  this  country  or  abroad,  for  most  of  it 
has  found  its  way  into  museums,  or  is  held  by  those  per- 
sons who  appreciate  its  value  and  interest,  so  that  would- 
be  buyers  have  to  be  very  careful.  Nearly  all  cabinet 
work  of  every  period  is  copied,  and  that  too  quite  accu- 
rately, so  that  even  dealers  themselves  are  often  deceived. 
It  is  better,  if  possible,  to  pay  a  good  price  for  some 

219 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

desired  pedigreed  specimen  than  to  rely  upon  the  dealer, 
or  the  auctioneer,  first  taking  the  trouble  to  do  a  bit  of 
reading  and  study,  and  to  make  local  acquaintances.  I 
have  no  space  to  go  into  the  question  of  the  ingenuity  of 
those  rascals  who  imitate  and  sophisticate,  for  the  subject 
would  need  a  chapter  by  itself,  except  to  say  that  there 
are  other  fraudulent  means  of  suggesting  extreme  age 
than  by  firing  bird  shot  at  the  new-old  chairs  and  tables. 

The  folly  of  some  rich  people  is  beyond  conception.  A 
well-known  and  honest  London  dealer  told  me  that  the 
American  wife  of  an  English  nobleman  had  sold  to  him 
much  of  the  exquisite  early  English  oak  that  had  been 
in  her  husband's  family  for  hundreds  of  years  and  bought 
modern  imitation- Adam  furniture  of  satinwood  "because 
it  was  so  fashionable." 

A  great  deal  of  so-called  "Chippendale,"  "Sheraton" 
and  "Adam"  furniture  is  sold  now-a-days  as  the  actual 
production  of  these  men.  In  reality  the  two  former  made 
but  little  themselves,  while  scores  of  cabinet  makers  copied 
their  designs  from  Chippendale's  own  exquisite  ribbon 
designs,  and  settees  of  conjoined  chairs  published  in  the 
Gentlemert's  and  Cabinet  Makers'  Director  and  Shera- 
ton's Cabinet  Makers'  and  Upholsterers'  Drawing  Book. 
The  so-called  "Adam"  furniture  is  simply  that  designed 
by  the  brothers  Adam,  who  were  architects,  and  not  cabi- 
net makers.  Much  of  this  fine  satinwood  and  mahogany 
was  decorated  by  Angelica  Kauffman  and  others.  Pergo- 
lesi  was  one  inspired  by  the  Adams,  and  much  of  his  dec- 
orative work  consists  of  a  ground  of  some  greyish-green 
flat  pigment  with  garlands  of  flowers  and  medallions 
painted  thereon,  and  possibly  a  border  of  satinwood  ve- 
neer. He  often  used  gold  foil  with  his  colours.  Much 
of  the  French  period-furniture  for  sale  at  cheap  auctions 
consists  of  gilded  stufl"  with  imitation  Beauvais  tapestry, 

^20 


THE  HUNT  FOR  THE  ANTIQUE 

turned  out  in  great  quantity  from  several  manufacturers 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  in 
Paris. 

The  craze  for  certain  kinds  of  furniture  in  this  coun- 
try is  as  fickle  as  other  fashions,  and  just  now,  as  in  Lon- 
don, people  are  striving  to  accumulate  cabinets  and  other 
pieces  with  the  imitation  Chinese  coromandel,  so  popular 
in  the  times  of  Louis  XVI  and  the  Georges.  One  day  I 
visited  a  well-to-do  patient — a  dilettante  who  had  just 
acquired  a  desk  of  this  kind  at  the  suggestion  of  a  dealer 
in  antiquities.  It  was  the  newest  kind  of  a  piece,  however, 
and  the  inside  and  underbearings  of  the  drawings  of  the 
drawers  might  have  been  painted  yesterday,  for  there 
was  not  the  slightest  indication  of  use.  The  purchaser 
evidently  beheved  in  the  assurance  of  the  tradesman  that 
it  was  an  old  example,  without  considering  the  merits  of 
the  piece  for  himself.  The  next  morning  from  a  top  seat 
on  a  Fifth  Avenue  omnibus  I  counted  in  the  windows  of 
antique  dealers  three  others  of  the  same  kind,  that  might 
have  been  done  by  the  same  English  maker,  and  probably 
were.  When  in  London  a  few  months  later  I  met  the 
man  who  made  much  of  this  stuff  for  Bond  Street  and 
Fifth  Avenue,  and  who  did  a  prosperous  and  ever-increas- 
ing business.  He  was  a  clever  fellow  and  could  supply 
any  piece,  of  any  period,  at  a  comparatively  moderate 
price. 

The  tricks  of  the  trade  are  innumerable,  and  if  people 
are  swindled  it  is  largely  because  there  is  no  fixed  taste, 
and  a  great  deal  of  ignorance  and  much  cupidity.  Now- 
a-days  real  ohjets  d'art^  whether  at  Christie's  auction 
rooms  or  elsewhere,  bring  enormous  prices,  and  sometimes 
more  than  they  are  worth,  while  trash  is  obtainable  as 
cheaply  as  ever.  Many  years  ago  I  bought  at  a  sale  in 
New  York  two  semi-circular  Pergolesi  tables  for  less  than 

221 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ten  dollars.  One  of  them  was  afterwards  bid  in  by  Stan- 
ford White  for  about  thirty  dollars,  and  after  his  death 
bought  by  Duveen,  who,  I  am  told,  sold  it  in  London  for 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  to  some  one  who  knew  its  great 
value  and  appreciated  its  beauty. 

To  persons  who  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  New 
York  Custom  House  and  its  workings,  there  is  something 
most  aggravating  about  the  ignorance  of  the  so-called 
appraisers  that  is  very  galling,  and  their  way  of  treating 
those  whose  imports  they  are  supposed  to  pass  upon  is 
sometimes  very  impertinent  and  overbearing.  In  1894  I 
brought  from  Japan  some  armour  and  stuffs,  and  from 
Spain  some  sixteenth  century  furniture.  I  knew  the  pedi- 
gree of  the  former,  for  they  came  from  a  Samurai  family 
near  Nagasaki,  whom  I  knew  well,  and  had  been  in  their 
immediate  possession  since,  if  not  before,  the  last  Sho- 
gunate,  having  been  handed  down  for  many  generations. 
All  these  things  were  held  up ;  I  protested,  and  we  had  a 
trial.  I  must  say  the  presiding  justice  was  a  fair-minded 
and  courteous  gentleman  but  the  appraiser  was  obstinate 
and  tenacious  in  his  opinion  that  my  things  were  new.  I 
finally  called  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  they  would 
probably  find  the  maker's  name,  the  date  and  a  verse  or  two 
in  the  iron  helmet,  and  offered  to  slit  up  the  old  lining  and 
let  them  see.  My  offer  was  accepted  and  it  was  found,  as 
I  said,  that  the  name  was  Myochin  Muncharo,  the  date 
1560,  and  there  was  the  usual  verse  regarding  the  valour 
of  the  wearer.  All  the  other  things  were  satisfactorily 
accounted  for,  even  to  the  final  satisfaction  of  the 
appraiser. 

The  Government  a  month  later  paid  me  the  compliment 
of  asking  me  to  go  to  Newport  and  examine  and  give  an 
opinion  upon  the  collection  of  supposedly  antique  furni- 
ture in  the  house  of  a  rich  woman,  about  which  there  was 


MAX  BEERBOHM,  BY  HIMSELF 


THE  HUNT  FOR  THE  ANTIQUE 

some  dispute  in  regard  to  duty.  Under  the  law  then  in 
operation  a  collection  of  genuine  antiques  of  a  certain 
age  could  be  brought  into  the  country  free,  but  if  the 
individual  pieces  were  at  all  "made  up"  or  reconstructed, 
duty  would  have  to  be  paid  on  all  the  new  material. 

My  friend,  Stanford  White,  whom  I  met,  had  bought  all 
these  things  in  various  European  cities,  and  as  was  his 
wont  had  not  examined  them  with  the  eye  of  an  antiqua- 
rian, but  only  valued  them  for  their  artistic  attractive- 
ness, paying  the  dealer's  price  without  any  attempt  to 
bargain.  I  immediately  found,  upon  turning  the  chairs, 
cabinets  and  tables  upside  down,  or  by  placing  them  in  a 
position  to  examine  them  properly,  that  the  greater  pro- 
portion were  patched  or  pieced  with  new  wood,  or  con- 
structed of  odd  old  pieces  assembled  by  the  cabinet  maker. 
This,  of  course,  greatly  reduced  their  value,  and  at  the 
same  time  increased  the  duty  exacted  by  the  Government. 

In  this  connection  I  may  refer  to  a  case  in  which  the 
Government  was  made  of  use  to  advertise  a  fraudulent 
picture.  A  few  years  ago  a  great  deal  of  amusement  was 
created  in  art  circles  by  a  sharp  trick  played  by  an  un- 
scrupulous dealer  who  was  in  the  habit,  with  others,  of 
palming  off  fictitious  old  masters,  which  were  copies  made 
by  a  talented  Frenchman  in  Paris  who  even  went  so  far 
as  to  sign  the  name  of  the  original  artist.  One  day  he  was 
approached  by  the  dealer,  who  said  to  him:  "You  are  too 
fine  an  artist  to  copy  the  work  of  others.  You  should 
make  your  own  name  and  I  will  give  you  a  chance.  Now 
paint  out  the  name  'Rembrandt'  and  place  your  own  on 
its  place,  and  I  will  give  you  a  good  price  for  it,"  which 
he  did.  The  picture  was  then  consigned  to  the  dealer's 
agent  in  New  York,  and  at  the  same  time  an  anonymous 
letter  was  sent  to  the  customs  officials  warning  them  that 
"a  picture  was  on  its  way  over,  signed  by  an  unlcnown 

223 


THE  HUNT  FOR  THE  ANTIQUE 

I  have  known  many  caricaturists  in  by-gone  days,  and 
those  clever  men  who  drew  for  Vanity  Fair  (the  American 
Punch  during  its  short  existence)  were  friends  of  my 
brother,  who  was  no  mean  draughtsman  himself.  The  list 
included  Augustus  Hoppin,  Bellew,  and  even  the  venera- 
ble Elihu  Vedder,  now  living  at  Capri  and  whose  wonder- 
ful illustrations  to  the  Eubdiydt  of  Omar  Khayyam  have 
made  his  greatest  reputation. 

Two  men  in  London  have  for  years  been  my  friends; 
one  of  these  is  Max  Beerbohm,  and  the  other  Leslie  Ward, 
the  celebrated  "Spy"  of  Vanity  Fair,  who  has  been  busy 
for  forty  years  taking  kindly  liberties  with  the  English 
physiognomy.  "Max"  is  not  only  a  clever  satirist  and 
critic,  but  possesses  a  sense  of  humour  which  finds  vent  in 
his  caricatures  which  have  this  inspiration  and  wit  as  well, 
and  are  entirely  different  from  the  much  more  finished 
productions  of  Leslie  Ward.  Max  has  the  suggestive 
method  of  Caran  d'Ache,  which  is  true  and  artistic  fun- 
making,  and  he  does  not  resist  the  temptation  sometimes 
to  caricature  himself.  I  asked  him  for  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction to  the  Agnews,  the  famous  Bond  Street  picture 
dealers,  and  he  replied:  "My  dear  Doctor:  I  enclose  you 
a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  Agnews,  whom,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  I  believe  to  have  some  such  appearance  as  this 
(wrongly  I  hope)."    Of  course  he  was  wrong. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  to  ridicule  Oscar  Wilde's  ridicu- 
lous affectations.  I  photographed  him  striking  one  of  the 
latter's  favourite  poses,  when  he  was  one  of  a  merry  party 
that  visited  me  in  the  nineties.  He  was  always  a  bit  of  a 
dandy  and  always  wore  a  neat  hat,  even  when  he  toured 
in  the  wild  west.  One  of  his  compagnons  du  voyage  told 
me  it  was  a  sight  to  see  Max  ascend  the  ladder  in  the  sleep- 
ing car  to  gain  his  upper  berth,  stick,  hat,  and  all,  after 

225 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

which  he  disrobed,  hanging  the  conspicuous  headgear  on 
a  hook. 

Leshe  Ward,  one  of  my  close  London  friends,  has  prob- 
ably had  a  more  extensive  acquaintance  with  celebrated 
English  people  than  any  one  I  know,  for  a  man  who 
actually  has  sitters  who  come  to  be  caricatured  undeniably 
has  pleasant  relations  with  them,  and  sees  a  side  denied 
to  others.  Ward  is  a  handsome  man,  quite  simple  in 
manner,  a  bit  forgetful,  and  altogether  lovable.  His 
speech  is  slow  and  hesitating,  and  he  occasionally  indulges 
in  lapses  linguce  of  a  laughable  character,  or  his  absent- 
mindedness  leads  him  to  do  queer  things.  He  tells  the 
following  story  of  himself: 

One  snowy  night  at  a  late  hour  Ward  left  his  club,  in 
evening  dress  and  poorly  protected  against  the  cold. 
When  he  got  down  into  the  street  he  had  only  a  shilling 
in  his  pocket,  and  after  a  diligent  search  could  not  find  his 
latchkey.  As  he  lived  a  long  distance  away  and  there  was 
no  available  place  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  where  he 
could  borrow,  he  started  away  on  foot.  Half  frozen,  he 
finally  gave  up  and  sought  a  policeman,  who  recommended 
him  to  a  cabmen's  shelter  where  he  was  hospitably  received 
and  given  a  bag  to  sleep  upon.  After  an  hour  or  two  of 
discomfort  he  quite  accidentally  found  the  missing  key  in 
a  pocket  he  had  overlooked,  and,  after  his  night  of  misery, 
crept  into  his  room  long  before  the  milkman  had  made 
his  rounds. 

One  night  at  the  Beefsteak  Club  Sir  Edward  Cecil  and 
Weedon  Grossmith  were  sitting  at  the  dinner  table  with 
Leslie  Ward.  The  former  suggested  a  box  at  the  Pavilion 
Music  Hall,  and  insisted  that  the  others  should  be  his 
guests.  Ward  declined,  as  he  had  no  dress  suit,  but  Sir 
Edward  insisted,  and  said,  "My  dear  Leslie,  we  will  not 
be  deprived  of  your  excellent  company  for  the  sake  of  an 


LESLIE   WARD,    "SPY' 


THE  HUNT  FOR  THE  ANTIQUE 

absurd  convention.  You  shall  be  properly  dressed,"  and 
calling  the  servant  told  him  to  bring  some  cartridge  paper 
and  pins,  and  with  or  without  Ward's  consent,  he  was 
rapidly  transformed,  according  to  Weedon  Grossmith, 
who  tells  the  story.  The  ordinary  black  frock  coat  was 
pinned  up  in  front,  and  Cecil  cut  out  a  wonderful  shirt 
front  in  paper  and  with  ink  made  fine  black  studs  and  cuffs 
to  match.  A  collar  was  cut  out  and  a  "ready  made"  white 
tie  with  gum  and  pins.  The  deception  was  complete. 
"Of  course  he  had  to  be  careful  how  he  walked.  We  no- 
ticed he  vibrated  a  bit,  for  cartridge  paper  hasn't  the  pli- 
ability of  linen.  We  cabbed  it  to  the  Pavilion  Music 
Hall,  and  Leslie  never  looked  better  than  he  did  for  the 
first  ten  minutes,  sitting  in  front  of  the  box,  even  if  a  bit 
stiff;  but  whether  it  was  laughing  too  much  or  moving 
about,  I  can't  say,  but  suddenly  his  paper  tie  came  in  half; 
half  of  it  fell  off,  while  the  other  half  which  was  pinned, 
remained  on.  Shortly  after  the  high  collar  tore  at  the 
back,  and  one  cuff  fell  off,  disclosing  the  blue  shirt,  the 
white  shirt  front  got  out  of  control  and  he  practically  fell 
to  pieces." 

Art  patrons  at  all  times  have  been  the  despair  of  artists, 
and  I  recall  an  incident  which  speaks  for  the  independence 
of  a  certain  conscientious  painter.  I  had  once  a  patient 
who  had  suddenly  become  rich.  She  was  of  humble  origin 
and  ignorant,  and  after  buying  a  house  and  furnishing  it 
in  execrable  taste,  conceived  the  idea  of  having  her  daugh- 
ter's portrait  painted  by  a  clever  young  artist  who  was 
devoted  to  the  ideals  of  his  profession.  Her  house  was  in 
an  inland  city  near  one  of  the  great  lakes,  with  a  dull 
outlook  of  muddy  water.  The  daughter,  laden  with  all  the 
available  jewels  of  the  family,  was  reproduced  in  a  manner 
to  which  her  family  could  not  object,  and  in  the  distance 
was  a  background  of  a  negative  character:  certainly  the 

227 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

best  that  could  be  done  with  the  subject.  The  first  serious 
trouble  was  when  the  mother  insisted  that  a  wholly  imag- 
inary lighthouse  should  be  placed  in  the  near  distance. 
This  the  conscientious  painter  refused  to  do  and  carried 
his  point  after  the  case  had  actually  gone  to  the  courts. 


228 


CHAPTER  XIV 

LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes — ^Weir  Mitchell — ^When  May  a  Doctor  Write? 
— Ten  Thousand  a  Year — The  Charaka  Club — Sir  William  Osier 
— ^A  Collection  of  Religio  Medici — The  Love  of  Notoriety — Two 
Recent  Books  by  English  Doctors — The  Author  Writes  for  the 
Century — Dr.  J.  G.  Holland — Richard  Watson  Gilder  and  the 
Editorial  Staff — The  American  Immortals — Charles  Dudley  War- 
ner's Hands — I  Write  a  Book — Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan's 
Opinion  of  Benedict  Arnold — Dean  Van  Amringe — Public 
Speakers — Mixed  Notes — Sergeant  Ballantyne — ^After  Dinner 
Speakers — Dr.  A.  E.  MacDonald — Recreations  of  Medical  Men 
— Painting  and  Music — An  Expensive  Violin. 

At  the  complimentary  dimier  given  to  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  upon  the  occasion  of  his  seventieth  birthday,  I  sat 
next  to  the  late  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  and  in  the  course 
of  our  table  talk,  knowing  that  he  had  written  some  unpub- 
lished poems,  I  asked  him  why  he  had  not  exercised  his 
talent  earlier  in  life.  He  then  told  me  that  some  years 
before,  he  had  asked  Doctor  Holmes  to  tell  him  when  a 
physician  might  safely  mount  his  literary  Pegasus  without 
injury  to  his  regular  medical  work,  for  in  this  country  pa- 
tients are  intolerant  of  a  man  who  is  not  strictly  devoted 
to  his  own  profession.  Holmes  told  him  that  "he  might 
begin  when  he  had  made  enough  by  medicine  to  do  without 
practice."  I  doubt  if  this  advice  was  entirely  consistent 
with  his  own  independence,  for  the  author  of  Elsie  Tenner 
and  the  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table  wrote  these  books 

229 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

when  he  was  in  great  measure  dependent  upon  professional 
emolument,  though  he  probably  derived  enough  to  live 
upon  from  his  professorship  at  Harvard,  and  to  an  extent 
from  the  Atlantic  Montlily  of  which  he  was  co-editor. 

The  author  of  Confessio  Medici  quite  bears  out  Dr. 
Holmes'  admonition,  for  in  his  observations  upon  "retire- 
ment" he  instances  the  case  of  a  doctor  who  imagined  him- 
self a  playwright  and  gave  way  to  his  leanings  in  this 
direction  to  such  an  extent  that  his  patients  deserted  him, 
and  he  was  forced  to  retire  because  he  had  nothing  to  do. 

Weir  Mitchell,  until  the  success  attendant  upon  the  ex- 
ploitation of  the  so-called  rest  treatment,  was  not,  I  be- 
lieve, regarded  as  at  all  a  prosperous  practitioner,  al- 
though his  very  solid  and  varied  scientific  work  in  neurol- 
ogy was  recognised  all  over  the  world;  but  when  all  the 
hysterical  women  from  Maine  to  Oregon  flocked  to  him 
after  the  publication  of  the  popular  httle  book  called  Fat 
and  Blood,  he  made  a  great  deal  of  money  and  could 
afford  to  follow  the  advice  of  Dr.  Holmes. 

Perhaps  the  best  known  medical  novelist  was  Dr.  Samuel 
Warren  of  England,  later  a  lawyer,  who  wrote  Ten  Thou^ 
sand  a  Year  and  the  Diary  of  a  Physician,  but  with  the 
exception  of  Holmes  and  Mitchell,  there  have  been  no 
very  successful  American  medical  novelists  or  writers  of 
fiction. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  in  late  years  for  members  of 
my  profession  to  indulge  in  literary  work  allied  to,  or  out- 
side, of  medicine,  especially  in  historical  or  quasi-medical 
topics.  There  is  a  club  in  New  York  known  as  the  Charaka 
that  has  this  purpose,  and  some  of  the  papers  written  by 
the  members  have  really  been  very  meritorious  when  not 
facetious.  Those  of  Drs.  Bailey,  Gerster,  Sachs,  and  Dana 
are  especially  creditable,  while  other  members  have  in- 
dulged in  respectable  verse.    The  best  all  around  literary 

230 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

work,  however,  has  been  done  by  my  friend.  Sir  William 
Osier,  Bart.,  who  is  now  Regius  Professor  of  Oxford,  and 
who  has  discoursed  learnedly  and  entertainingly,  one  of 
his  bright  little  productions  being  the  Alabama  Student. 
For  years  he  has  been  devoted  to  the  collection  of  Religio 
Medici  and  the  other  books  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  and 
when  I  visited  the  library  of  Christ  Church  at  Oxford,  a 
few  years  ago,  I  found  that  one  of  Osier's  pursuits  since 
his  incumbency  had  been  to  gather  the  different  editions 
of  this  author  from  all  parts  of  the  vast  libraries,  and  de- 
posit them  in  shelves  by  themselves.  So  far  he  has  not 
had  the  hardihood  to  write  novels. 

The  works  of  fiction,  and  even  the  essays,  of  medical  men 
are  not  always  their  happiest  productions,  for  they  often 
are  pseudo-scientific,  vain,  and  affected  in  style  and  com- 
position, and  this  is  notably  true  of  American  works  of 
this  kind ;  they  may  even  be  vehicles  for  personal  aggran- 
disement, and  I  once  knew  a  novelist  whose  vanity  was  so 
great  that  it  might  be  said  that  his  only  fear  of  death  was 
that  he  would  not  live  to  read  his  own  obituary  notices  in 
the  newspapers.  He  therefore  could  not  resist  the  temp- 
tation to  inject  his  personality  into  his  work,  and  in  one 
of  his  stories  there  was  a  cripple  whose  body  was  a  thing 
of  clay,  but  whose  brain  was  intact  and  so  active  that  he 
was  wont  to  indulge  in  brilliant  epigrams.  This  was  an 
ingenious  idea,  but  those  who  knew  him  best  found  no 
difficulty  in  recognising  the  good  things  the  author  said  at 
his  club  and  elsewhere,  which  were  afterward  reproduced 
in  print. 

There  are  few  physicians  whose  literary  work  has  at- 
tained the  standard  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  or  Bernard 
de  Mandeville  who  wrote  the  Fable  of  the  Bees^  and  no 
one  has  written  the  simple  sweet  things  of  Dr.  John  Brown, 

2311 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  author  of  Bah  and  His  Friends,  which  is  an  enduring 
dehght. 

Two  recent  books  of  lighter  vein  are  charming  indica- 
tions of  what  clever  medical  men  can  do.  One  of  these 
is  Confessio  Medici,  which  has  much  to  do  with  the  prob- 
lems of  medical  practice,  full  of  wise  philosophy  and  gentle 
fancy;  the  other.  The  Corner  of  Harley  Street,  consists 
of  a  series  of  letters  which  is  "some  of  the  familiar  corre- 
spondence of  Peter  Harding,  M.  D." 

Many  years  ago  I  wrote  for  the  Century  magazine  a 
fanciful  short  tale  called  Herr  von  StrumpelVs  Experi- 
ment, which  by  some  people  was  taken  in  dead  earnest,  and 
was  practically  the  story  of  the  transplantation  of  the 
brain  of  a  cat  into  that  of  a  beautiful,  sensible  and  dignified 
woman  who,  after  her  convalescence,  underwent  a  remark- 
able change^  acquiring  feline  characteristics  of  a  familiar 
kind,  finally  dying  with  the  greatest  difficulty  and  bearing 
out  the  popular  superstition  about  the  nine  lives  of  tabby. 
Strange  to  say,  this  led  to  serious  experimentation  and  I 
have  heard  of  occasions  where  the  brain  grafting  was  ac- 
tually tried  with  apparent  success,  but  let  us  hope  with 
no  transfer  of  objectionable  peculiarities. 

Another  short  essay  of  mine  was  entitled  The  Perils  of 
Small  Talk.  In  this  I  pictured  the  mental  degeneration 
that  is  associated  with  the  repetition  of  colloquialisms  and 
stereotyped  forms  of  daily  and  meaningless  salutation, 
and  a  resulting  and  gradual  decadence  of  the  vocabulary. 
Of  course  it  was  necessary  to  give  familiar  illustration  of 
what  occurs  in  small  villages,  at  one's  club  and  other  places, 
but  an  English  reviewer  took  it  all  very  literally,  and 
scolded  me  roundly  for  calling  attention  to  faults  of  which 
he  himself  was  probably  guilty.  He  could  not  see  the 
point  at  all. 

This  kind  of  denseness  is  by  no  means  universal,  but 

232 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

seems  to  flourish  in  certain  parts  of  Great  Britain  where 
they  once  derided  American  humour.  Some  years  ago  I 
sat  talking  to  some  old  Scotchmen  in  the  far  northern 
town  of  Inverness.  We  reached  the  stage  of  telling  anec- 
dotes, and  I  gave  them  the  familiar  story  of  the  yachts- 
man who  sent  his  steward  ashore  with  a  ten-dollar  bill, 
telling  him  to  buy  some  bread,  and  not  to  forget  the  whis- 
key. When  he  returned  with  his  purchases  it  was  found 
that  he  had  bought  nine  dollars'  worth  of  whiskey  and  one 
dollar's  worth  of  bread.  He  was  asked,  "Why  in  Heaven's 
name  did  you  buy  so  much  bread?"  One  old  Scot  who  sat 
by  me  gravely  asked:  "And  why  did  he?"  Whether  this 
was  a  natural  query  in  a  place  where  whiskey  is  so  popular 
a  beverage,  or  whether  he  saw  the  point  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
say. 

This  work  in  the  past  has  brought  me  into  contact  with 
a  few  men  who  conducted  the  Century  and  Scribnefs  mag- 
azines, among  them  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  Richard  Watson 
Gilder,  Clarence  Buel  and  Robert  Underwood  Johnson. 
As  I  remember,  the  first  of  these,  Dr.  Holland,  dressed 
in  a  somewhat  dandified  manner,  and  as  a  rule  affected 
a  pose.  He  was  a  handsome.  Eastern-looking  man,  and 
was  very  popular  especially  with  his  feminine  country 
readers.  He  possessed  editorial  capacity,  conducting  the 
magazines  over  which  he  presided  in  an  admirable  manner. 
Under  the  pseudonym  of  Timothy  Titcomb  he  wrote  many 
light  essays,  a  serial  novel  called  Arthur  Bonnicastle,  and 
subsequently  a  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Richard  Wat- 
son Gilder  was  a  delightful  man,  most  sincere  and  earnest ; 
rather  delicate  and  feminine  in  appearance  and  manner, 
this  being  in  contrast  with  the  other  members  of  his  family, 
one  of  whom  was  a  stalwart  Arctic  explorer,  and  the  other, 
the  late  Miss  Jeanette  Gilder,  a  large  and  somewhat  mas- 
culine-looking woman  with  vigorous  intellectual  attributes. 

233 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

He  did  much  hard  work  upon  the  Century,  besides  finding 
time  to  put  through  an  International  Copyright  law,  to  edit 
the  Life  and  Letters  of  Lincoln^,  and  to  write  much  verse. 
As  a  poet  he  belonged  to  the  school  of  Henry  Van  Dyck, 
his  productions  being  largely  pastoral.  Clarence  Buel  was 
a  modest  and  attractive  person,  possessing  great  good 
judgment,  and  I  learn  that  it  was  largely  to  him  that  the 
success  of  the  Century  was  due,  at  a  time  when  Civil  War 
articles  were  featured. 

It  was  Robert  Underwood  Johnson  who  attempted  with 
some  success  to  form  a  native  association  of  Immortals 
upon  the  plan  of  the  French  Academy,  but  such  things 
are  not  fully  successful  in  democratic  or  Anglo-Saxon 
countries,  and  he  met  with  some  opposition  from  unfeeling 
legislatures  when  he  attempted  to  legalise  the  organisation. 
There  were  some  persons  who  were  even  rude  enough  to 
say  that  it  was  a  "mutual  admiration  society;"  but  all  this 
did  not  deter  the  original  members  from  getting  together 
and  electing  a  number  of  American  men  of  Arts  and  Let- 
ters— including  Dr.  Van  Dyck,  Brander  Matthews  and 
Hamilton  Wright  Mabie,  all  distinguished  litterateurs. 
One  of  my  dearest  and  oldest  literary  friends  was  Charles 
Dudley  Warner,  whose  gentle  humour  and  sweet  kindli- 
ness of  spirit  gained  for  him  the  great  devotion  of  every 
one  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 

Warner  was  eminently  simple,  and  his  lighter  writings, 
especially,  reflect  his  happy  soul,  and  never  betray  in 
the  slightest  degree  any  cutting  wit  or  ill  nature.  His 
sarcasm  was  always  of  the  most  innocuous  kind,  and  I  be- 
lieve it  would  have  made  him  genuinely  miserable  to  have 
hurt  the  feelings  of  any  one,  even  the  most  vain  and  pom- 
pous of  his  own  profession  who  had  incurred  his  mild  dis- 
pleasure. He  was  a  fine-looking,  handsome  man,  with 
something  almost  patriarchal  in  his  appearance  in  his  lat- 

234. 


THE    HANDS    OF    CHARLES    DUDLEY    WARNER 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

ter  days,  which  was  due  in  measure  to  the  manner  in  which 
he  trimmed  his  beard.  His  great  refinement  was  not  only 
apparent  in  his  easy,  pohshed  manners,  and  in  his  quiet, 
well-bred  musical  voice,  but  he  showed  physical  traces  of 
all  this  as  well.  Sometime  before  the  end,  he  gave  me  a 
photograph  of  his  hands  taken  at  the  insistence  of  a  friend, 
and  in  making  this  gift  there  was  not  the  slightest  evidence 
of  vanity  in  his  manner.  This  picture  shows  a  particu- 
larly beautiful  and  artistic  hand  which  expresses  virility 
with  delicacy,  and  a  rare  amount  of  physical  grace. 

The  study  of  the  human  hand  as  a  whole,  unlike  palm- 
istry, reveals  much.  It  has  even  been  said  by  a  French 
savant,  M.  d'Arpentigny,  that  the  hands  represent  three 
types:  "Those  whose  fingers  have  pointed  tips  are  pos- 
sessed of  a  rapid  insight  into  things;  are  extra  sensitive 
and  pious,  and  impulsive.  To  this  class  belong  poets  and 
artists.  To  the  square  tops  belong  scientific  people;  sen- 
sible, self-contained  characters,  professional  men.  The 
spade-shaped  tops — ^thick  tips  with  little  pads  of  flesh  on 
each  side  of  the  nails — are  materialists,  commercial,  prac- 
tical, with  a  higher  appreciation  of  all  that  tends  to  bodily 
ease  and  comfort." 

One  of  Warner's  charming  traits  was  his  domesticity 
and  devotion  to  his  wife,  herself  a  clever  and  accomplished 
woman,  who  was  the  source  of  much  of  his  inspiration. 

In  1910  I  wrote  a  life  of  my  grandfather  which  was  well 
received  and  had  an  immediate  success  and  good  sale  for 
a  time,  but  the  profits  were  small.  Possibly  I  might  have 
had  more  return  were  it  not  for  the  sales  to  the  public  li- 
braries, which  in  recent  years  have  hurt  most  authors,  and 
to  a  degree  publishers.  While  these  are  of  course  a  boon 
to  the  public  at  large,  tens  of  thousands  of  possible  buyers 
are  lost,  for  I  found  at  several  large  libraries  that  the  copies 
of  my  book  were  always  "out,"  showing  how  many  readers 

235 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

it  must  have  had,  and  the  same  thing  probably  occurred  in 
other  places  than  New  York,  for  I  was  told  fifteen  hundred 
copies  were  ordered  by  these  institutions  alone.  Perhaps 
only  really  profitable  books  nowadays  are  low-priced  and 
sensational  novels,  which  physicians  are  not  in  the  habit 
of  writing. 

Dm'ing  the  preparation  of  my  volume  T  received  a  letter 
from  Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  the  nephew  of  Macau- 
lay  and  the  distinguished  author  of  The  American  Revolu- 
tion, who  hoped  that  I  would  deal  gently  with  Benedict 
Arnold,  who,  he  intimated,  was  a  much-abused  historical 
character.  "I  am  glad  to  learn,"  he  said,  "that  the  balance 
of  probabilities  is  in  favour  of  Aaron  Burr  having  ended 
miserably;  I  wish  him  worse  than  Benedict  Arnold,  for 
whom  I  have  a  sort  of  kindness." 

I  came  in  for  some  adverse  criticism  because  I  showed 
that  Burr  was  not  the  utterly  despicable  character  he  had 
been  painted,  although  he  certainly  had  faults  enough. 

When  the  book  appeared,  one  of  the  first  letters  I  re- 
ceived was  the  following  from  the  universally  loved  Dean 
J.  H.  Van  Amringe  of  Columbia  University  to  whom  I 
had  made  the  dedication: 

48  East  26th  Street, 

Nov.  6,  1910. 
Dear  Doctor   Hamilton: 

I  have  just  finished  a  first  reading  of  your  Life  of  Hamilton 
and  found  it  very  interesting  and  instructive. 

It  is  true  to  its  declared  purpose  in  being  throughout  an 
"intimate"  life.  Its  candour  and  obvious  fairness,  not  concealing 
such  faults  as  he  had  (defects  of  his  qualities)  and  not  unduly 
extolling  his  many  virtues,  are  engaging  and  impressive.  It 
shows  that  his  genius  manifested  itself  from  the  beginning;  makes 
plain,  as  the  story  unfolds  itself,  his  inborn  qualities  of  mastery 
of  men  and  things,  his  noble  ambition  without  pettiness  of  self- 
seeking,  his  essential  and  rare  altruism,  his  magnanimity  and  free- 

236 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

ness  from  envy,  hatred  and  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness,  his 
lovableness  in  private  life,  and  his  commanding  power  and  in- 
fluence in  public  and  professional  life,  and  must  add  much  to  the 
general  knowledge  of  one  of  the  most  unselfish  of  patriots  and 
greatest  of  men.  I  congratulate  you  on  having  wrought  so  good 
a  work  in  so  excellent  a  way. 

Sincerely  yours, 

J.  H.  Van  Ameinge. 
Dr.  Allan  McLane  Hamilton. 

This  letter  was  indeed  a  reward  for  all  the  trouble  I  had 
taken,  for  Professor  Van  Amringe  was  more  familiar  than 
any  one  I  knew  with  my  grandfather's  career,  and  he  was 
ever  alive  to  instil  his  own  admiration  for  Hamilton  into 
the  minds  of  the  young  men  under  his  charge. 

There  is  a  danger  in  writing  for  the  public  press  and 
periodicals  under  one's  own  name  that  leads  to  more  than 
one  mauvais  quart  d'heure.  Upon  several  occasions,  dur- 
ing recent  political  compaigns,  I  have  contributed  various 
essays,  especially  to  the  North  American  RevieWj,  and  other 
journals.  One,  written  at  the  request  of  my  old  friend, 
David  Munro,  its  editor  for  several  years,  was  entitled 
Psychopathic  Rulers j,  and  in  this  I  tried  to  picture  the  dan- 
ger of  electing  persons  to  public  office  who  were  mentally 
unstable.  It  naturally  was  admitted  that  my  criticisms 
were  directed  toward  a  well-known  national  character, 
whose  popularity  was  then  as  now  very  great.  I  was  show- 
ered with  the  most  venomous  and  general  abuse,  but  I 
bided  my  time  until  a  period  when  the  pendulum  swung 
in  the  other  direction,  when  many  of  the  newspapers  who 
had  before  been  most  bitter  completely  reversed  their  front, 
and  one  who  had  called  me  every  name  that  his  journalistic 
ingenuity  could  invent,  admitted  that  I  was  perfectly  right. 
My  chief  endorser  was  my  old  friend,  Henry  Watterson, 
the  courageous  editor  of  the  Louisville  Courier- Journal, 

237 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

who  is  never  afraid  to  speak  his  mind,  although  his  shafts 
sometimes  strike  home. 

I  do  not  know  what  my  article  upon  the  Psychosis  of  the 
German  Kaiser  may  bring  forth,  but  so  far  I  have  escaped 
an  attack  by  chlorine  gas,  or  a  "curtain  of  fire,"  and  I  go 
to  bed  every  night  without  the  fear  that  a  Zeppelin  may 
be  hovering  over  my  house-top,  to  drop  a  particularly 
poisonous  bomb. 

Upon  one  occasion  the  editor  of  a  book  trade  journal 
sent  me  a  number  of  semi-scientific  books,  asking  for  re- 
views, and  one  of  these  was  upon  Christian  Science.  In 
due  course  the  notices  were  sent  to  the  journal  and  all 
were  printed  except  that  upon  this  subject,  which  was 
rather  caustic.  I  wrote  to  the  editor  asking  if  he  had  re- 
ceived the  review  of  the  latter.  He  replied  and  made  an 
appointment  to  meet  me  at  my  club,  and  I  could  not  guess 
what  could  be  the  matter.  He  was  a  young  man  of  rather 
timid  and  bashful  manner,  and  after  beating  about  the 
bush  for  some  time,  said:  "Now  I  know.  Dr.  Hamilton, 
you  will  forgive  me  for  not  publishing  your  adverse  notice 
of  the  book  upon  Christian  Science,  but  I  really  could  not 
bear  to,  for  both  my  mother  and  sister  are  devoted  members 
of  that  churchy  and  indeed  I  could  not  wound  their  feel- 
ings in  such  a  way." 

It  would  seem  that  educated  physicians,  especially  those 
who  were  in  the  habit  of  lecturing,  would  make  good  ora- 
tors, or  even  after-dinner  speakers,  but  most  of  the  suc- 
cessful men  in  this  field  are  lawyers  who  acquire  an  easy 
f acihty  in  expressing  themselves  in  public. 

But  once  in  my  life  had  I  the  temerity  to  speak  in  public 
— at  the  instance  of  the  late  Judge  John  R.  Brady  before 
a  Hibernian  Society. 

My  turn  came  late  in  the  evening,  after  the  table  had 
become  lined  with  numerous  empty  champagne  bottles. 

238 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

Detached  bits  of  song  were  started  in  different  parts  of 
the  hall  before  I  began,  and  during  the  last  half  of  a  rather 
long  and  platitudinous  speech  by  a  distinguished  divine. 
In  a  few  minutes,  despite  the  violent  pounding  upon  the 
table  by  the  toast  master  for  order,  the  room  was  in  an 
uproar,  and  vinous  conversation  quite  general.  Hot  and 
mortified  and,  I  suppose,  inaudible,  I  dropped  into  my 
seat,  and  no  one  of  the  more  interesting  speakers  that 
were  to  follow  had  the  courage  to  face  the  storm.  I  have 
never  again  tried  the  experiment. 

Many  years  ago  I  met  Serjeant  Ballantyne,  a  well- 
known  English  barrister,  and  a  wit  and  man  of  the  world. 
He  had  published  his  memoirs,  which  were  quite  readable 
and  full  of  narrative.  Like  George  Russell's  Collections 
and  Recollections^  they  abounded  in  delightful  personal 
experiences  of  fashionable  English  life.  He  came  here 
in  the  eighties,  and  delivered  an  address  at  Chickering 
Hall  under  the  auspices  of  Judge  Brady  and  many  mem- 
bers of  the  New  York  Bar,  and  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever 
felt  so  sorry  for  any  one  in  my  life.  In  the  presence  of 
a  large,  friendly,  and  fashionable  audience,  he  suffered 
stage  fright  and  hesitation  of  manner  to  such  a  degree  that 
his  lecture  ended  in  inglorious  failure  in  less  than  half  an 
hour,  much  to  the  dismay  of  those  who  expected  a  finished 
and  clever  address.  The  trouble  was  that  he  was  sur- 
charged with  material,  but  could  not  forget  his  strange 
audience  and  immerse  himself  in  his  subject  as  any  suc- 
cessful speaker  must.  With  hardly  any  exaggeration,  his 
address  was  as  follows: 

"Now,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen — ah — ah — I  suppose  you 
would  like  to  hear  something  about  my  travels  and  ex- 
periences ?    I  have  met  many  people — ah — ah I  must 

tell  you  how  I  met  Lord  Clancarty  at  Mentone  in  1868 — 
ah — ah — ah  (pause,  with  momentary  reflection) — but  per- 

239 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

haps  this  may  not  interest  you  (pause,  nervous  hesita- 
tion and  rapid  resumption) .  Are  you  interested  in  dogs? 
(Laughter.)  Ah,  I  see  you  are  (coyishly).  Well,  the 
Earl  of  Powys  had  a  prize  dog,  a  setter — no,  a  pointer — 
named  Dash  in  his  kennels  near  Inverness  vrorth  two  thou- 
sand guineas  (a  pause),  an  excellent  dog,  quite  affection- 
ate, and  kind  to  children,  I  assure  you — and  quite  devoted 
to  his  Lordship  as  well — ah — ah — ah"  (hesitation  and 
rapid  fumbling  with  his  notes,  which  had  become  evidently 
hopelessly  disarranged)  and  then  a  plunge  into  new  fields, 
getting  more  and  more  involved  in  um'elated  anecdotes, 
and  more  confused,  until  he  literally  ran  down,  stopped, 
and  collapsed  into  a  seat  next  to  his  kind  host,  who  tried 
to  comfort  him.  The  sympathetic  and  puzzled  audience 
slowly  filed  out  of  the  hall  after  waiting  a  few  minutes,  not 
knowing  exactly  what  to  make  of  it  all. 

One  of  the  best  medical  after-dinner  speakers  I  have 
ever  known  was  my  friend  the  late  Dr.  A.  E.  MacDonald, 
for  many  years  Superintendent  of  the  Ward's  Island 
Asylum. 

He  was  in  great  demand  at  the  dinners  of  the  Lotus 
Club,  and  his  speech  at  the  Decennial  banquet  of  that  or- 
ganisation, held  on  March  20th,  1880,  was  full  of  fun.  In 
speaking  of  the  original  club  house,  he  said:  "It  was  a 
modest  mansion,  gentlemen,  in  which  the  Lotus  first  blos- 
somed; it  has  had  its  vicissitudes,  its  ups  and  do^vns,  and 
if  the  Irishism  may  be  pardoned  me,  the  downs  had  been 
decidedly  in  the  ascendant"  .  .  .  "The  Club  house 
in  Irving  Place,"  he  declared,  "gave  some  fitting  indica- 
tion of  the  aims  and  objects  of  the  club,  for  it  nestled  be- 
tween the  Academy  (of  Music)  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
gas  house  on  the  other — music  and  oratory  surrounded  it." 

The  recreations  of  medical  men,  apart  from  outdoor 
sports,  are  often  of  an  artistic  nature.    Many  of  my  friends, 

240 


LITERARY  AND  ARTISTIC  DOCTORS 

like  Sir  Henry  Thompson  of  England,  have  been  clever 
artists.  One  of  the  cleverest  American  etchers  was  the 
late  Dr.  LeRoy  Milton  Yale,  who  ranked  almost  with  Sir 
Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton,  but  he  did  not  let  this  diversion 
interfere  with  his  skilful  work  as  an  orthopedic  surgeon. 
Drs.  John  G.  Curtis  and  W.  Gilman  Thompson  both 
drew  beautifully,  and  George  M.  Leff  erts  had  much  talent, 
and  was  a  witty  caricaturist. 

Sometimes  we  find  such  accomplished  musicians  as  was 
Henry  B.  Sands,  and  Lucien  Demainville,  who  was  a  vio- 
lin virtuoso  of  the  first  rank.  There  are  probably  six  string 
quartettes  to-day  in  New  York  alone,  among  the  doctors, 
and  some  of  the  most  valuable  musical  instruments  belong 
to  members  of  my  profession.  My  friend,  Dr.  Wilham 
Hirsch,  owns  a  "Strad"  which,  I  believe,  has  been  sold 
upon  one  occasion  for  $12,000 — a  rather  stiff  price  for  a 
violin.  This  he  keeps  as  he  would  a  baby  in  a  cupboard 
with  carefully  regulated  temperature,  and  swathed  in  silk 
like  a  young  prince. 


Ml 


CHAPTER   XV 

LONDON   IN   WAR  TIME 

I  Go  to  Berlin — Mine  Layer  at  Cuxhaven — Outbreak  of  War — 111 
Treatment  of  Americans — The  Night  of  August  4th,  1914 — En- 
thusiasm in  Leicester  Square— Stranded  Tourists — Food  Panic 
— Execution  of  Spies — The  Special  Constables — I  Offer  My  Serv- 
ices to  the  King — Lord  Rothschild's  Horses — Newspaper  Corre- 
spondents and  Interviews — Private  Hospitals — The  Canadians — ■ 
A  Letter  from  the  Front — The  Activity  of  the  Navy — ^Winston 
Churchill — Prince  Louis  of  Battenburg — The  Falkland  Expedi- 
tion— The  Zeppelins — The  Effect  of  Battle  Upon  the  Individual 
— Patrol  Duty  in  the  North  Sea. 

Having  occasion  to  go  to  Berlin  in  July,  1914, 1  took  the 
big  German  steamer  Imperator^  which  reached  Cuxhaven 
July  5th.  Of  course  no  one  had  any  idea  that  a  great  war 
was  imminent,  although  we  had  heard  in  London  of  the 
assassination  at  Sarajevo.  I  had,  however,  been  in  Munich 
in  the  winter  of  1914  and  had  there  found  the  existence 
of  some  disagreeable  feeling  regarding  Russia,  but  noth- 
ing of  moment.  Outside  of  the  Regina  Palast  Hotel  one 
afternoon  a  telegraphic  bulletin  had  been  posted  regard- 
ing some  trouble  on  the  border,  and  this  drew  forth  angry 
exclamations  from  the  crowd,  but  no  foreigner  was  then 
really  apprehensive. 

When  we  came  up  to  the  wharf  at  Cuxhaven  we  im- 
mediately saw  a  large  German  mine  layer,  evidently  in 
full  commission,  for  she  had  an  active  crew,  and  a  large 
number  of  mines  were  upon  her  decks  ready  for  laying; 

242 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

in  fact,  there  was  every  indication  that  she  had  just  come 
into  port.  The  friend  who  was  with  me  was  as  much  puz- 
zled as  I,  and  my  curiosity  was  increased  by  the  fact  that 
on  our  way  up  to  Hamburg  all  the  curtains  in  the  cars 
were  pulled  down  as  we  passed  the  entrance  of  the  Kiel 
canal.  In  Berlin  I  found  a  great  many  troops  in  heavy 
marching  order,  and  the  telegraph  offices  were  showing  in 
their  front  windows  despatches  referring  to  the  Austro- 
Servian  aflFair,  which  were  read  by  a  noisy  crowd.  All 
this  was  twelve  days  before  Austria  declared  war,  and 
a  month  before  England  decided  to  be  a  party  to  the  hos- 
tilities, so  this  indicated  not  only  preparedness^  but  actual 
mobilisation ;  certainly  the  claim  that  the  contest  was  forced 
upon  Germany  by  England  was  more  than  disingenuous 
• — it  was  a  feeble  lie. 

Luckily  I  finished  my  business  in  a  week,  and  lingered 
only  a  day  or  two  thereafter  in  the  German  capital.  The 
Kaiser  was  upon  his  yacht  somewhere  on  the  Swedish 
coast,  taking  his  summer  vacation,  and  Unter  den  Linden 
was  quiet  enough,  although  there  was  the  usual  tepid  in- 
terest shown  when  one  of  the  beflagged  automobiles  of 
the  royal  household  darted  by  with  one  of  the  younger 
princes  inside.  I  therefore  returned  to  England  in  time 
to  escape  the  inevitable  internment,  or  that  kind  of  per- 
secution and  annoyance  that  every  English-speaking  per- 
son had  to  undergo,  for  at  remote  points  the  ignorant 
soldiery  made  no  discrimination  between  English  people 
and  Americans. 

Some  of  the  latter  had  a  hard  time  in  Germany,  and 
there  were  many  instances  of  great  cruelty.  Sir  Henry 
Drayton,  a  prominent  Canadian  who  was  a  member  of  the 
Relief  Committee  in  London,  told  me  of  an  interview  he 
had  actually  had  with  an  American  tourist  who,  the  day 
the  war  broke  out,  was  somewhere  in  East  Prussia  with  a 

2.43 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

party,  and  accompanied  by  his  three  young  daughters. 
When  at  a  railway  station,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of 
half-drunken  German  soldiers,  he  remonstrated,  and  was 
knocked  about ;  he  then  threatened  to  appeal  to  the  United 
States  Consul.  This  seemed  to  intensely  irritate  the  mob 
of  soldiers  and  officers,  who  seized  and  tied  him  up  by  his 
thumbs,  and  then  outraged  each  one  of  his  daughters  in 
turn  before  his  eyes.  This  story  was  later  confirmed  by 
the  purser  of  one  of  the  Boston  Cunard  steamers  to  whom 
he  subsequently  complained,  but  the  man  could  not  be 
induced  to  appeal  to  the  State  Department,  not  being  will- 
ing to  expose  his  daughters'  shame  and  feeling  at  the  time 
he  could  get  no  redress.  As  things  have  turned  out,  it  is 
doubtful  if  anything  would  have  been  done  had  he  sought 
this  aid. 

The  Imperator,  I  was  afterward  informed  by  one  who 
was  on  board  and  should  know,  had  carried  on  a  previous 
trip  a  large  number  of  German  officers  in  mufti,  as  well  as 
secret  service  agents,  who  were  landed  at  Cherbourg  with- 
out any  evident  hindrance.  I  do  not  know  how  many  re- 
servists we  carried  to  Cuxhaven,  but  there  were  many  Ger- 
mans and  German- Jews  on  board;  and  great  Teutonic 
enthusiasm  was  shown  at  the  Fourth  of  July  dinner,  when 
the  flags  of  nations  other  than  Germany  and  the  United 
States  were  conspicuous  for  their  absence  from  the  tables, 
which  was  in  contrast  with  what  is  usual  upon  other  occa- 
sions. 

There  were  some  Americans  making  their  first  trip  to 
Europe  who  spoke  no  other  language  than  their  own — 
one  family  of  father  and  mother  and  several  young  chil- 
dren who,  I  afterward  learned,  were  stranded  in  Southern 
Germany  in  a  place  where  there  was  no  United  States 
Consul,  and  could  not  get  away  for  weeks. 

On  my  way  to  Flushing  on  my  return  I  met  Karl  Chris- 

244 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

tian  Garve,  a  young  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin,  and  a  most  intelligent  man.  In  the 
course  of  our  conversation  he  referred  to  the  military  aims 
of  Germany,  not  at  all  in  the  spirit  of  Nietzsche,  and  dwelt 
upon  the  kindly  feeling  entertained  for  England,  and  the 
German  respect  for  the  energy  and  system  of  the  United 
States.  The  "dream  of  Germany,"  he  said,  was  the  con- 
quest of  the  Slav — "the  savage  Slav" — and  to  make  all 
Europe  a  great  Teutonic  power  was  the  sole  aim  of  his 
Kaiser,  and  then  there  was  a  eulogium  of  Germany  of 
the  usual  kind. 

After  my  return  to  England  I  was  daily  thrown  into 
contact  with  many  public  men.  The  feeling  was  growing 
more  tense,  but  no  one  knew  the  full  extent  of  the  game 
the  Kaiser  and  his  friends  were  playing.  Although  there 
were  plenty  of  proud  Englishmen  who  did  not  hesitate 
in  urging  a  strong  course,  the  liberal  Cabinet  was  strangely 
divided,  and  it  was  only  after  twelve  days  of  constant 
session  that  a  conclusion  was  reached,  and  then  two  or 
three  men  shirked  the  responsibility  and  resigned. 

Meanwhile  there  were  quiet  but  unmistakable  indica- 
tions of  impending  trouble,  and  Whitehall  was  daily 
crowded  with  people  who  stood  for  hours  outside  of  the 
government  offices  in  the  great  heat  of  August.  Various 
territorial  regiments  marched  through  the  Strand  and 
Cockspur  Street,  and  up  the  Haymarket,  and  all  of  these 
were  provided  with  full  equipment.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  the  onlookers  on  the  sidewalk  were  absolutely  un- 
demonstrative; in  fact,  I  learned  that  this  was  character- 
istic of  the  English,  and  upon  another  occasion,  when 
I  saw  a  long  battalion  of  cheery-looking  and  almost  boyish 
recruits  who  were  marching  down  Sloane  Street  singing 
the  Marseillaise  meanwhile,  I  heartily  applauded,  as  I 
would  have  done  at  home^  but  I  was  alone  in  this — in  fact, 

245 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

I  was  looked  upon  rather  curiously  by  those  about  me. 
The  night  of  the  third  of  August,  1914,  and  the  preceding 
days  were  never  to  be  forgotten,  for  even  on  the  Sunday 
before  most  of  us  felt  absolutely  certain  that  the  time 
had  come.  I  went  to  the  South  Kensington  post  office 
in  Exhibition  Road  to  send  a  registered  letter  with  bank 
notes  to  Munich  to  enable  a  member  of  my  family  who 
was  shut  up  there  to  get  ?.way.  The  postal  authorities 
would  only  take  the  letter  "at  the  sender's  risk,"  and  one 
could  not  send  a  telegram  to  Bavaria  with  any  assurance 
that  it  would  be  received.  On  Monday,  which  was  a  bank 
holiday,  and  on  all  the  earlier  days  of  the  week,  there 
was  growing  unrest.  On  Thursday  at  midnight  the  gov- 
ernment was  to  take  action,  for  Germany  had  refused 
to  answer  Lord  Grey's  ultimatum.  I,  like  others,  went 
to  Trafalgar  Square,  and  there  found  a  vast  crowd  filling 
the  open  space  about  the  Nelson  statue  and  densely  pack- 
ing the  Strand  and  all  the  streets  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  I  was  struck  by  the  grim  silence  that  prevailed.  It 
might  have  been  one  of  those  huge,  dense  bodies  of  men 
sketched  by  Louis  Raemaekers,  the  clever  artist  of  the 
Dutch  paper  Elzevir ^  or  some  other  impressionist.  One 
heard  no  joking,  no  laughter  or  horseplay;  every  one  was 
solemn,  and  talked  in  low  voices.  An  assistant  postmaster 
had  left  Charing  Cross  post  office  and  told  me  confiden- 
tially that  a  messenger  was  to  come  from  Downing  Street 
at  midnight,  or  perhaps  before,  with  a  message  that  would 
settle  the  question.  I  walked  up  St.  Martin's  Lane  to  my 
club  and  found  there  that  they  already  had  news  of  the 
decision  of  the  Ministry,  of  which  the  men  in  the  street 
were  ignorant.  In  a  few  minutes  a  roar  from  below 
apprised  us  that  they,  too,  knew  the  momentous  decision, 
for  there  was  now  a  noisy,  seething  mass  of  moving  human 
beings,  marching  hither  and  thither  and  crying,  "Vive  la 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

France !"  "Vive  I'Angleterre" — for  we  were  in  the  heart 
of  the  French  district  near  Leicester  Square.  Then  pro- 
cessions were  formed,  and  popular  men  at  the  head  were 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the  others.  An  open  carriage 
dashed  through  Piccadilly,  and  its  occupant  was  a  little 
hrown  Japanese  who  carried  an  enormous  flag  of  his  coun- 
try and  cheered  lustily,  "Banzai — Banzai!"  It  reminded 
me  of  Mafeking  night,  without  the  inane  rowdyism  and 
disorder.  About  the  French  news  office  in  Green  Street  a 
closely  packed  mass  of  Frenchmen  pressed  forward  to  get 
such  additional  information  as  they  could,  and  roared  with 
laughter  when  some  pungent  Gallic  joke  was  made,  while 
the  Marseillaise  was  sung  over  and  over  again. 

At  my  club  grave,  serious  and  conservative  men  were 
enthusiastic  and  joyous;  and  the  usual  English  reserve  was 
for  the  time  broken.  Old  companions  in  arms  in  previous 
wars  put  their  arms  around  each  other,  and  soldier  sons 
seated  themselves  by  their  fathers  and  clasped  their  hands. 

The  next  day  there  was  little  outward  enthusiasm  or 
evidence  that  England  was  entering  a  fight  for  her  very 
life.  It  was  all  taken  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  I  doubt 
if  any  one  would  have  been  at  all  disturbed  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  effect  of  such  a  little  thing  as  the  temporary 
refusal  of  the  banks  to  give  out  any  gold  over  their  coun- 
ters, and  the  inconvenience  of  those  people  who  had  failed 
to  provide  themselves.  It  was  not  only  impossible  to  get 
sovereigns,  but  one  could  not,  for  a  few  days,  change  a 
five-pound  note;  small  change,  even,  was  very  scarce. 
Bank  Holiday,  the  first  Monday  in  August,  had  preceded 
the  actual  declaration  of  hostilities  by  three  days,  and  busi- 
ness was  further  paralysed  by  the  situation — ^but  I  shall 
not  further  describe  a  state  of  upheaval  which  is  so  recent 
and  familiar.  The  stringency  of  ready  money  continued 
for  a  week  more  at  least.    People  were  using  postal  notes 

247 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

of  smaU  denominations  and  such  silver  as  they  had.  There 
was  something  amusing  about  the  pHght  of  even  very  rich 
men  who  had  to  borrow  sovereigns  for  their  immediate 
petty  needs  from  their  more  fortunate  friends.  I  had 
cashed  some  North  German  Lloyd  travellers'  cheques  a 
few  days  before,  when  I  felt  that  there  was  something 
in  the  air,  and  was  able  to  help  some  of  my  friends  and 
suffer  no  personal  inconvenience.  Grossmith,  the  inimit- 
able comedian,  had  accepted  an  invitation  to  spend  a  week- 
end with  a  friend,  but  only  had  a  single  lonely  pound  in 
his  pocket.  He  presented  himself  at  the  booking  office  at 
Charing  Cross,  and  said  to  the  young  man:    "Is  my  face 

good  for  a  return  ticket  to  W ?"    "Yes,  indeed,  Mr. 

Grossmith,  every  one  knows  you^  sir — there's  your  ticket." 
This  condition  of  affairs  became  very  serious  for  Ameri- 
can tourists,  several  thousand  of  whom  arrived  in  London 
without  friends  or  money.  The  Strand  was  full  of  them, 
and  quite  like  upper  Broadway;  and  the  Cockspur  Street 
and  Pall  Mall  steamship  offices  were  besieged.  Their  let- 
ters of  credit  could  not  at  first  be  cashed,  for  the  banks 
were  closed,  but  the  American  Express  invariably  hon- 
oured its  own  travellers'  cheques,  and  was  of  infinite  as- 
sistance. My  friend,  Mr.  Dalliba,  the  head  of  the  Paris 
branch,  also  did  much  good  helping  people  to  cross  the 
Channel.  Among  that  class  of  "trippers"  who  had  left 
home  with  a  return  ticket  and  little  money,  the  inconve- 
nience was  very  great,  for  they  even  slept  on  the  benches 
or  upon  the  grass  in  the  parks,  and  borrowed  money  and 
begged  food  where  they  were  able  until  the  relief  com- 
mittee was  established  at  the  Hotel  Cecil.  I  knew  of  a 
party  from  a  small  inland  city,  largely  composed  of  school 
teachers  and  dressmakers,  who  had  paid  less  than  four 
hundred  dollars  to  go  and  return  and  for  a  trip  over  most 
of  the  continent  with  hotel  expenses,  guides,  etc.,  included. 

^48 


WEEDON     GROSSMITH     aS     HAMLET 

With  permission  of  Woedon  Grossmith,  Esq. 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

Heaven  knows  how  they  did  it  at  any  time.  They  were 
held  up  in  Germany,  and  later  sent  back  to  England,  and, 
having  no  money,  and  there  being  no  steamer  available, 
had  to  stay  for  weeks  at  the  expense  of  the  Touring 
Agency,  which  found  it  difficult  to  pay  the  London  hotel 
that  charitably  took  them  in.  Some  rich  men  pooled  their 
issues  and  hired  a  steamer,  and  it  was  no  uncommon  thing 
for  a  ticket  to  be  sold  for  one  thousand  dollars. 

There  was  a  rush  for  food  from  those  who  lived  in 
London,  as  the  perfectly  unjustifiable  fear  of  a  shortage 
of  supplies  worried  many  housekeepers.  Immense  stocks 
were  ordered  from  Harrod's  stores  and  other  places,  and 
there  was  a  sharp  rise  in  prices.  Finally,  as  the  result  of 
governmental  interference,  there  was  not  only  public  reas- 
surance, but  steps  were  taken  to  prevent  food  speculation, 
and  so  the  silly  panic  was  averted.  Of  course  London  was 
full  of  German  spies  and  plotters,  and  every  subject  of 
the  central  powers  therein  was  obliged  to  register  at  the 
nearest  police  station;  many  were  afterward  interned  at 
the  Olympia  and  other  big  buildings.  The  German  waiters 
at  the  hotels  had  a  hard  time,  and  were  sometimes  treated 
with  great  harshness  by  cowardly  and  bullying  guests,  the 
only  proof  of  alleged  wrongdoing  being  that  they  were 
born  in  Germany.  Our  own  Embassy  was  veiy  strict,  and 
an  American  woman  who  had  many  years  before  married 
an  Austrian,  from  whom  she  was  separated,  could  not  get 
permission  to  leave  England  because  of  her  alleged  foreign 
nationality.  This  was  indeed  a  too  literal  interpretation  of 
the  law. 

Thanks  to  the  energies  of  the  Boy  Scouts  and  the  coun- 
try constables,  many  dastardly  attempts  undertaken  by  the 
agents  of  the  enemy  were  detected  and  frustrated.  It  is 
well  known  that  two  Germans,  who  were  said  to  be  medi- 
cal men,  had  attempted  to  poison  the  drinking  water  with 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

typhoid  bacilli  near  Bramshott,  where  there  is  a  military 
camp.  They  were  caught  in  the  act  and  promptly  shot. 
Other  spies,  I  am  told,  were  executed  near  Southampton 
for  this  same  offence. 

When  I  returned  to  England  on  the  ill-fated  Arabic 
with  the  brave  Captain  "Tubby"  Finch  in  December,  1914, 
we  had  three  of  these  gentry  on  board,  whose  departure 
was  cabled  to  the  Liverpool  authorities  from  Canada. 
They  were,  nevertheless,  allowed  to  land  and,  I  learn, 
closely  shadowed  during  their  stay.  I  saw  them  on  the 
ship  and  subsequently  at  the  Midland  Adelphi  Hotel — ^two 
men  and  a  woman — and  I  think  they  showed  their  anxiety 
in  their  restlessness  and  the  furtive  glances  they  gave  the 
other  passengers  who  sat  near  them.  At  the  Hotel  the 
detectives  took  their  coffee  at  the  next  table. 

At  an  early  date  every  one  in  London  strove  to  be  of 
some  use,  and  among  other  things  a  special  constable  force 
was  formed.  Cyril  Maude,  the  well-known  actor,  whom  I 
know,  did  duty  at  the  bottom  of  Bond  Street  from  three 
until  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  his  early  breakfast  being 
brought  to  him  in  a  basket.  These  amateur  policemen  were 
everywhere,  and  I  always  saw  one  standing  on  guard  on 
the  corner  outside  of  the  power  house  near  the  South  Ken- 
sington station. 

When  the  war  first  began  the  need  for  mounts  in  Great 
Britain  was  pressing,  and  army  officers  made  a  round  of 
all  the  stables,  not  only  of  the  farmer  and  jobber,  but  of 
the  rich  as  well.  When  one  of  these  gentlemen  turned  up 
at  the  racing  stable  of  Lord  Leopold  Bothschild,  he  pro- 
posed to  commandeer  the  stock.  Among  the  horses  were 
several  very  valuable  prize  winners.  His  Lordship  was 
appalled,  but  had  no  redress,  so  when  the  Government 
agent  offered  him  the  nominal  sum  allowed  in  payment, 
with  an  awkward  apology,  it  was  refused,  and  the  possible 

S50 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

winner  of  a  future  Derby  was  given  to  the  nation.  It  was 
a  matter  said  to  be  known  to  a  few  persons  that  this  power- 
ful nobleman  had  been  approached  by  an  emissary  of  the 
Kaiser  before  the  war  who  had  the  effrontery  to  think  that 
Lord  Rothschild  would  be  disloyal  to  his  adopted  country. 
Never  was  there  a  greater  mistake! 

Americans  and  English  alike  were  anxious  to  do  "their 
bit,"  and  I  saw  the  chance  of  raising  a  large  sum 
of  money  to  build  a  base  hospital  near  the  sea  coast — a 
thing  which  was  badly  needed,  as  severely  wounded  men 
and  those  suffering  from  shock  were,  after  being  disem- 
barked, immediately  hurried  off  for  long  railroad  journeys 
to  some  inland  point.  The  projected  hospital  was  to  be 
altogether  American — ^medical  staff,  nurses  and  attendants 
as  well — and  was  to  be  modelled  upon  the  plan  of  some 
of  those  that  were  so  successful  after  the  Civil  War  in 
the  United  States.  My  offer  was  very  kindly  acknowl- 
edged by  King  George,*  but  hung  fire  because  it  was  in 
violation  of  neutrality  under  Article  II  of  the  Geneva 
Convention.  At  that  time  the  English  Government  was 
more  strict  than  it  is  at  present,  as  lately  some  of  the  large 
London  hospitals  have  been  supplied  with  surgical  staffs 
from  Boston  and  elsewhere. 

When  I  went  to  see  the  medical  head  of  the  army.  Sir 
Arthur  Sloggett,  about  this  matter,  I  found  him  to  be 
a  bright,  keen  little  man  who  had  the  medical  management 
at  his  fingers'  ends.     He  is  a  delightful  person,  and  is 

*  Buckingham  Palace, 

4th  August,  1914. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  am  commanded  by  the  King  to  thank  you  for  the  generous  offer 
of  your  services  during  the  coming  time. 

I  am  forwarding  your  letter  to  the  War  Office. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

Stanfordham. 
251 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

idolised  by  the  junior  medical  officers,  especially  because 
of  his  universal  kindness  and  complete  absence  of  "side." 
I  later  received  a  nice  Christmas  letter  from  him  at  the 
front,  where  he  was  Director  General.  I  afterward  met 
Sir  Alfred  Keogh,  who  acted  in  his  place  in  London,  and 
whom  I  had  known  some  years  before  in  New  York. 

After  I  finished  my  talk  in  the  War  Office,  I  went  down- 
stairs, and  was  so  absorbed  in  the  things  I  had  just  been 
discussing  that  before  I  knew  it  I  had  descended  the  flight 
of  steps  into  the  basement  instead  of  going  out  of  the  street 
door  into  Whitehall.  I  was  brought  to  my  senses,  how- 
ever, when  I  found  myself  confronted  by  a  tall  policeman, 
who  examined  my  bundle  of  plans  and  took  me  upstairs, 
where  I  had  no  trouble  in  making  my  identity  known.  As 
every  one  was  in  fear  that  the  building  would  be  blown 
up,  and  of  course  Lord  Kitchener  with  it,  the  presence  of 
any  stranger  in  the  lower  part  of  the  War  Office  was  sus- 
picious. 

The  American  newspaper  correspondents,  as  well  as 
their  English  companions,  were  always  very  wroth  because 
they  could  not  write  and  publish  anything  they  chose  about 
the  war,  some  thinking  the  refusal  of  the  censors  was  an 
affront  to  them  personally;  and  in  a  manner  deplorably 
f amihar  at  home,  proceeded  not  only  to  defy  the  authorities 
in  getting  news  from  secret  sources  and  cabling  it  to  the 
United  States,  but  one  of  them  assailed  the  War  Office  and 
Lord  Kitchener  in  an  American  newspaper,  with  the  result 
that  he  got  himself  into  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  I  am  told 
that  he  was  sent  for  and  warned  that  if  he  persisted  in  giv- 
ing uncensored  news  that  might  find  its  way  to  the  enemy, 
he  would  be  treated  as  a  spy  and  shot.  Every  one  in  con- 
fidence knew  the  troubles  of  the  censors,  who  were  often 
roundly  abused  for  simply  doing  their  duty,  especially  by 

252 


LONDON  IN  WAK  TIME 

the  "yellow"  press  which  is  as  impudent  in  London  as  it  is 
in  New  York. 

There  were  many  private  estates  given  up  by  their  own- 
ers for  hospital  use;  at  the  invitation  of  a  friend,  Lady 
Helen  Grosvenor,  I  visited  Eaton  Hall,  the  palace  of  her 
nephew,  the  Duke  of  Westminster.  Here  I  found  a  large 
number  of  wounded  soldiers  who  were  having  the  time  of 
their  lives,  with  good  nursing,  excellent  food,  and  the 
chance  of  roaming  about  and  looking  at  all  the  magnifi- 
cent paintings  and  art  objects.  Lady  Grosvenor,  whom 
I  met  many  years  ago,  is  best  known  for  her  introduction 
of  caravaning  in  England,  and  her  general  love  of  sport. 
She  has  for  over  a  year  absolutely  devoted  herself  to  the 
noble  work  in  which  she  is  now  employed,  and  her  soldier 
charges  simply  adore  her. 

The  Duke  of  Rutland  has  also  given  up  his  castle  to 
wounded  soldiers,  and  personally  manages  everything.  He 
told  of  the  great  bravery  and  courage  of  some  of  the  un- 
fortunate inmates.  One  tall  young  Highlander,  who  could 
not  be  more  than  nineteen,  had  his  thigh  amputated,  and 
when  some  one  impulsively  pitied  him,  he  laughingly  said, 
"Ah,  well,  I  can  make  twa  stockings  go  a  bit  firther  now." 

During  the  fall  and  winter  of  1914  and  1915  Salisbury 
Plain  was  filled  with  troops  from  all  over  the  United  King- 
dom and  the  colonies.  Among  them  were  soldiers  from 
Canada,  who,  while  as  brave  as  lions,  had  what  might  be 
called  a  contempt  for  organised  authority.  A  good  story 
was  told  me  by  a  friend,  which  is  as  follows : 

One  night  there  was  some  movement  of  local  troops, 
and  the  sentry  at  a  certain  point  challenged  the  advancing 
platoons  about  as  follows: 

Sentry:    "Who  goes  there?" 
Answer:    "The  Black  Watch." 
Sentry:    "All  right.    Pass  on.  Black  Watch." 

253 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

(Again) 

Sentry:    "Who  goes  there?" 

Answer;    "The  Suffolks." 

Sentry:    "All  right.    Pass  on,  SufFolks." 

(Again,  in  a  few  minutes) 

Sentry:    "Who  goes  there?" 

Answer:     "What  in  the  H — ^U  is  that  to  you?" 

Sentry:    "All  right.    Pass  on,  Canadians!'' 

Every  one  who  came  from  the  front  united  in  saying 
what  splendid  fighters  these  men  were,  afraid  of  nothing 
and  always  doing  more  than  what  was  asked  of  them.  I 
met  two  or  three  of  the  Canadian  flying  corps  who  were 
on  their  way  home  to  drill  fresh  recruits  after  several 
months'  reconnaissance  in  France.  One  of  them,  who  had 
often  been  fired  upon  and  slightly  wounded,  declared  that 
he  would  never  go  up  again  unless  he  had  a  piece  of  boiler 
iron  attached  to  the  seat  of  his  aeroplane.  At  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  he  wrote  from  Toronto  to  a  firm  in  Boston 
wishing  to  purchase  a  biplane,  but  he  could  get  none  be- 
cause of  the  alleged  violation  of  neutrality  involved.  His 
next  move  was  to  go  to  Boston  in  person,  where  he  casu- 
ally dropped  into  the  establishment  of  the  aeroplane  manu- 
facturer. Being  in  mufti,  he  bought  what  he  desired  and 
paid  a  deposit,  and  was  afforded  a  chance  to  try  the  aero- 
plane. Accompanied  by  a  friend,  he  got  into  the  machine 
at  the  hangar,  and  to  the  astonishment  of  its  custodian 
flew  away  and  did  not  land  until  he  reached  Toronto,  some 
hours  later. 

Several  years  ago  I  met  a  clever  young  Irish  doctor 
who  came  to  the  United  States  to  practise  his  specialty, 
which  is  the  same  as  my  own.  In  1915,  wishing  to  go  to 
the  front.  Dr.  Foster  Kennedy  found  some  one  who  was 

254 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

willing  to  establish  a  Hospital  unit,  so  he  sailed  with  his 
wife,  who  was  an  able  ally.  The  doctor  first  went  to  the 
front,  and  later  secured  an  abandoned  monastery  at  Ris 
Or  an  j  is,  near  Fontainebleau,  which  was  reconstructed  and 
furnished.  It  was  subsequently  taken  charge  of  by  Dr. 
Joseph  A.  Blake,  formerly  with  the  American  Ambu- 
lance service  at  Neuilly. 

Kennedy  wrote  me  the  following  letter  from  the  front, 
where  he  had  first  gone  to  see  if  he  could  be  of  use: 

"I  am  really  a  most  delinquent  person  for  not  having  written 
to  you  long  ago  and  told  you  of  my  various  adventures  and 
plans,  but  each  day  saw  the  latter  changing,  so  I  always  felt 
that  I  would  have  a  more  definite  story  to  tell  if  I  delayed  writing 
to  you. 

"It  looks  now  as  though  it  were  probable  that  we  shall  be 
able  to  start  quite  a  big  Hospital  for  the  benefit  of  the  French 
wounded.  I  cannot  describe  to  you  the  innumerable  difficulties 
and  delays  with  which  I  was  confronted !  No  one  who  has  not 
gone  through  the  experience  could  really  believe  the  troubles  that 
beset  this  road.  It  became  clear  that  I  could  not  really  touch 
the  situation  without  seeing  it  at  first  hand,  so  after  considerable 
difficulties  I  got  my  passports  and  so  forth  in  order  and  crossed 
to  Calais  at  the  beginning  of  last  month.  I  met  there  two 
Belgian  Lieutenants  who  were  going  by  motor  car  to  Lapanne, 
an  amazingly  interesting  drive  through  placid  country  in  which 
the  only  signs  of  war  were  the  innumerable  soldiers  and  sentries 
on  the  road,  the  artillery  observation  posts  concealed  in  the  trees, 
and  the  church  spires  protected  by  scaffolding  against  shell  fire 
and  of  course  a  perpetual  obligate  of  booming  from  both  sea 
and  land. 

"Lapanne  is  a  little  sea-side  place  on  the  Dunes,  a  few  miles 
behind  the  most  northerly  trenches ;  it  is  really  a  base  hospital 
at  the  front.  The  men  are  carried  there  straight  from  the 
trenches  into  a  first-class  hospital,  but  unfortunately  it  is  a  great 
deal  too  near  the  front  to  be  continually  effective. 

255 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

"Whilst  I  was  there,  we  were  bombed  by  a  Taube,  and  since 
I  left,  shells  have  been  dropping  in  the  town.  The  Germans 
could  blow  it  to  blazes  any  time  they  have  a  spare  half  hour 
and  the  inclination.  It  was  quite  clear  that  in  that  locality  more 
hospitals  were  not  required,  not  only  for  these  reasons,  but  for 
the  fact  that  they  have  been  flooded  with  money  both  from 
America  and  England. 

"From  there  I  went  to  Bourbourg,  to  which  the  Belgian  Min- 
isters had  fled  after  the  bombardment  of  Dunkirk.  There  I  saw 
the  head  of  the  Service  de  Sante,  who  clearly  made  it  evident 
that  medical  assistance  for  the  Belgian  army  was  no  longer 
necessary. 

"From  Bourbourg  I  went  to  Graveline  and  Dunkirk  and  there 
I  stayed  a  considerable  time.  I  did  so  because  the  hospital 
situation  in  Dunkirk  was  absolutely  destroyed  by  the  bombard- 
ment, which  had  occurred  a  short  time  previously.  Consequent 
upon  the  shelling,  all  the  hospitals  were  evacuated  and  no  one 
could  say  when  they  would  be  allowed  to  be  filled  again;  that  is, 
no  one  except  the  Prussian  officer  in  command  of  the  gun  at 
Westend,  and  his  information  was  not  available.  I  wanted  to 
see  if  the  gun  would  begin  again  and  thus  clear  the  air;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  gun  remaining  silent,  whether  the  authorities 
could  make  up  their  minds  to  allow  the  streams  of  wounded  to 
return  to  Dunkirk,  in  which  case  I  could  easily  have  obtained 
permission  to  go  ahead  in  their  place.  But  none  of  these  things 
happened  and  I  finally  left  Dunkirk,  having  off^ered  the  Unit  to 
the  French  government,  which  offer  was  accepted  later  when  I 
returned  to  London. 

"While  at  Dunkirk  I  saw  innumerable  interesting  and  extraor- 
dinary things.  Being  unattached  I  was  able  to  see  the  wounded, 
which  were  left  in  many  hospitals,  and  best  of  all  I  was  asked 
to  go  to  Poperinghe  to  see  a  baby  with  a  bad  shell  wound  in  the 
head — this  I  did  with  great  pleasure,  and  we  left  it  in  good  con- 
dition to  recover.  Poperinghe  is  shelled  with  true  Teutonic  punc- 
tuality every  two  hours.  While  there  we  heard  that  a  certain 
Flemish  family  had  decided  that  the  time  had  come  for  them  to 

^56 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

leave  Ypres  and  as  the  hospital  at  Poperinghe  was  evacuated 
and  short-handedness  prevailed,  I  went  into  Ypres  with  another 
man  to  fetch  the  Flamands  out.  Ypres  is  surrounded  on  three 
sides  by  the  Germans  and  the  entrance  into  the  town  is  quite 
an  unhealthy  proceeding,  as  shelling  never  stops  both  over  the 
town  and  this  one  road  leading  into  it.  The  row  was  pretty 
awful  and  for  a  time  I  was  considerably  frightened,  though  I  hope 
no  one  noticed  it.  However,  that  sort  of  thing  is  not  one's  pre- 
conceived ideas  of  fighting,  it  is  as  impersonal  as  a  thunder- 
storm— offering  both  the  conditions  and  the  species  of  fatalism 
with  regard  to  the  chance  of  being  hit. 

"I  am  afraid  I  have  not  time  to  tell  you  everything  that  I 
saw  at  Ypres,  but  look  forward  to  doing  so  when  I  meet  you. 
I  spent  a  long  time  at  an  Aid  Post  just  outside  the  town,  pulling 
shrapnel  out  of  our  soldiers  and  trying  to  help  as  much  as  pos- 
sible the  poor  chaps  suffering  from  gas  poisoning." 

All  of  my  London  medical  friends  were  active  in  war 
matters,  and  seeing  their  patients  in  khaki,  or  going  over 
to  the  front  to  investigate  special  conditions.  Dr.  Joseph 
Blake  had,  as  I  knew  he  would,  created  a  great  sensation  in 
France  by  his  incomparable  surgery  at  the  Paris  Ambu- 
lance hospital,  and  endeared  himself  to  all.  I  have  heard 
of  wounded  English  officers  who  returned  invalided  who 
talked  of  him  just  as  affectionately  as  we  all  do  in  America. 

The  doings  of  the  navy  all  this  time  were  kept  very  se- 
cret, but  things  of  importance  leaked  out  occasionally  de- 
spite the  censors.  The  loss  of  the  Audacious^  which  was 
known  in  the  United  States  with  all  its  details  as  soon  as  it 
occurred,  was  absolutely  kept  from  the  English  public,  and 
on  my  return  in  December  I  was  eagerly  asked  if  the 
rumour  that  she  had  been  sunk  was  true. 

There  had  before  this  been  much  criticism  of  those  who 
forced  the  resignation  of  Prince  Louis  of  Battenburg.  All 
well-informed  and  decent  people  deplored  the  fact  that  so 

a57 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

good  and  loyal  a  man  should  be  sacrificed  and  humiliated 
merely  because  of  his  Austrian  blood  and  alleged  pro-Ger- 
man sympathy.  There  were  many  men,  however,  who 
liked  and  respected  him,  but  said  that  while  he  was  a  good 
organiser,  he  was  not  a  good  tactician,  and  that  it  was  as 
well  he  was  out  of  the  service.  The  low  attack  upon  him 
by  certain  "y^l^^ws"  made  the  blood  of  most  persons  boil, 
for  naturally  there  was  no  reply  possible. 

Late  in  the  autumn  of  1915  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
internal  unrest  upon  the  part  of  the  navy  because  of  the 
failure  to  follow  up  and  destroy  the  fleet  German  cruisers 
who  had  attacked  Yarmouth.  The  chagrin  was  all  the 
more  keen  because  some  one  had  blundered  about  the  wire- 
less, for  there  was  a  large  squadron  of  men-of-war  within 
easy  striking  distance  of  the  invaders.  The  destruction 
of  the  Good  Hope  and  Monmouth  on  the  Chilean  coast 
was  another  source  of  recrimination,  for  it  was  felt  that 
these  rather  old-fashioned  and  slow  ships  should  not  have 
been  sent  upon  their  mission.  It  was  in  November,  1915, 
that  a  secret  plan  of  retaliation  was  hit  upon,  and  the 
Infleojible  and  Invincible,  both  ships  of  from  twenty-five 
to  twenty-six  knots,  were  despatched  to  join  several  slower 
men-of-war  already  in  South  American  waters,  and  here 
the  Germans  were  caught  napping.  In  the  preparations 
for  seizing  the  Falklands  as  a  naval  base,  they  had  no  idea 
that  any  help  could  reach  the  comparatively  weak  English 
fleet  in  so  short  a  time,  their  calculations  being  evidently 
based  upon  the  length  of  the  voyage  of  ordinary  passenger 
ships  which  make  several  stops  and  crawl  over  the  At- 
lantic at  a  pace  of  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  knots.  The 
two  big  cruisers  actually  dropped  their  anchors  in  a  South 
American  port  in  less  than  two  weeks  from  the  time  they 
left  Plymouth;  the  fastest  passeng'er  steamers  usually 
taking  from  three  weeks  to  a  month  or  more.    The  subse- 

258 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

quent  operations  of  Admiral  Sir  F.  C.  Doveton  Sturdee 
in  sinking  the  Scharnhorst  and  Gneisenmi  were  compensa- 
tion for  the  earlier  omissions. 

While  most  people  gave  Winston  Churchill  full  credit 
for  all  he  had  done  in  building  up  the  British  navy,  there 
were  many  who  deplored  his  officiousness  and  blundering, 
especially  in  the  matter  of  sending  marines  to  Antwerp.  I 
had  never  met  him,  but  knew  some  of  his  American  rela- 
tives, among  them  Mr.  Travers  Jerome,  the  active  District 
Attorney.  I  had  the  opportunity,  a  few  months  before 
the  war,  of  seeing  the  then  Naval  head  at  close  range 
when  I  crossed  the  English  Channel.  His  appearance 
and  conduct  certainly  bore  out  much  of  the  caustic  com- 
ment of  critics  who  were  disposed  to  ridicule  him  for  his 
constant  posing.  The  hour  and  a  half  from  Dover  to 
Calais  was  an  amusing  one,  for  he  took  the  bridge  and 
practical  charge  of  the  httle  boat  all  in  dead  earnest, 
and  he  occasionally  turned  and  faced  the  curious  throng 
below  from  the  bridge  and  struck  an  attitude.  He  was 
then  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty.  The  bluff  Admiral 
Paget,  an  old  acquaintance  of  mine  who  was  also  a  pas- 
senger, must  have  appreciated  the  presence  and  conduct 
of  his  chief. 

When  I  left,  in  January,  1915,  no  actual  attacks  upon 
London  itself  had  been  made  by  Zeppelins,  although  they 
had  dropped  bombs  upon  Dover  and  some  west  coast 
places,  as  well  as  Scarborough.  No  one  seemed  to  be 
alarmed,  and  beyond  the  precaution  of  extinguishing  the 
electric  signs,  painting  the  tops  of  the  arc  lights  in  the 
streets  a  dark  colour,  reducing  them  in  number,  and  order- 
ing people  generally  to  draw  down  their  window  shades 
at  night,  nothing  was  done  in  the  matter.  Such  precau- 
tions as  searchlights  which  played  from  the  top  of  the 
Marble  Arch  in  Hyde  Park  and  the  Charing  Cross  sta- 

259 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

tion  were  also  taken,  but  many  people  thought  that  this 
was  a  benefit  to  the  Germans  instead  of  the  reverse.  One 
night  we  were  sure  we  saw  an  enemy  airship  over  Ken- 
sington, but  it  may  have  been  one  of  our  own.  Since  the 
initial  raid  most  people  have  learned  of  the  small  but  hor- 
rible slaughter  inflicted  by  these  barbarians.  From  letters 
I  learn  that  no  one  is  worried,  and  instead  of  seeking  their 
cellars  they  congregate  on  the  sidewalks. 

Within  a  month  I  have  received  a  letter  from  a  London 
artist  friend  which  gives  rather  a  realistic  description  of 
his  own  experience  and  the  attitude  of  unconcern: 

"I  was  talking  to  two  friends  at  my  club  about  the  beauties 
of  Morland  when  there  came  a  terrific  bang.  'Ullo,'  said  Captain 
J.,  'here  we  are  again.'  Then  the  guns  commenced  firing  over 
our  heads,  shaking  the  windows.  Several  went  to  them  to  look 
out.  Some  one  said,  'If  you  are  going  to  raise  those  blinds,  turn 
out  the  lights  in  the  room.'  I  went  into  the  street,  and  had  a  fine 
view  of  it.  It  was  two  miles  high,  and  didn't  look  five  feet  long. 
Just  Hke  a  piece  of  phosphorus,  the  guns  firing  all  around  it.  I 
got  a  taxi,  as  I  wanted  to  get  home  to  my  wife,  but  a  lot  of 
frightened  ladies  rushed  out  of  the  Alhambra,  so  I  gave  up  my 
taxi  to  them  and  walked  home.  My  wife  was  having  tea,  not  a  bit 
disturbed,  although  the  devil  passed  over  the  square,  as  it  did 
on  the  previous  visit.  They  always  come  one  way.  There  were 
about  eighty  people  killed,  some  blown  dbsolwtely  to  pieces,  about 
four  hundred  wounded." 

This  war,  more  than  any  other,  has  afforded  the  medi- 
cal man  many  curious  examples  of  the  effects  of  new 
weapons  of  offensive  attack.  I  do  not  refer  so  much  to 
poisonous  gases,  which  are  devilish  and  cruel  agents,  but 
to  the  effects  of  shock  and  concussion.  The  velocity  of 
high-powered  guns  and  explosives  is  such  as  to  kill  some- 
times without  a  visible  wound;  and  if  they  do  not  do  this 

260 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

they  absolutely  demoralise  the  functions  of  the  nervous 
system.  There  is  also  the  element  of  sudden  and  great 
fright.  At  the  battle  of  Mons,  when  one  English  division 
was  seemingly  overwhelmed  by  a  much  greater  force  of 
Germans,  a  condition  of  mental  paralysis  resulted,  which 
was  followed  by  actual  deafness  and  dumbness,  the  so- 
called  "battle-shock."  Some  men  were  found  in  the  hos- 
pital who  rocked  to  and  fro,  uttering  ceaseless  gibberish, 
and  others  became  hysterical.  I  saw  one  of  these  in  Lon- 
don, and  heard  of  many  others.  One  brave  young  captain 
who  had  obtained  an  order  for  bravery  and  had  a  few 
days'  leave  cried  and  laughed  the  night  before  his  return 
to  the  trenches.  The  horrors  of  the  front  to  some  sensi- 
tive people  were  responsible  for  great  mental  agony.  It 
was  not  so  much  the  fear  of  death  as  the  constant  tension, 
and  the  effort  to  escape  the  shell  and  shrapnel  fire. 

Very  few  men  were  made  insane  by  all  this,  the  cases 
I  have  mentioned  recovering  in  a  few  months,  as  a  rule, 
and  the  mutism  disappearing.  Those  who  became  insane 
were  men  who  had  some  such  predisposition  and  might 
have  become  so  from  any  adequate  psychic  and  physical 
cause  even  if  there  had  been  no  war. 

It  is  the  "mental  insult"  that  does  the  work,  and  the 
minor  psychoses  and  neuro-psychoses  are  the  same  as  we 
sometimes  see  at  home  in  people  who  have  been  in  railroad 
accidents. 

I  spent  a  week  in  Liverpool  toward  the  end  of  Janu- 
ary, 1915,  and  met  a  number  of  very  agreeable  naval  offi- 
cers who  were  engaged  in  the  perilous  duty  of  sea-patrol 
in  converted  liners,  a  most  dangerous  and  trying  work. 
Most  of  them  were  off  again  a  few  days  before  I  left,  hav- 
ing had  a  week's  rest  on  shore.  They  were  all  cheerful, 
brave  fellows ;  one  of  them.  Captain  Jeffries,  a  descendant 
of  the  great  Justice  of  that  name,  had  been  in  America 

261 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  we  had  many  mutual  friends.  He  was  a  simple-minded 
sailor  and  talked  very  touchingly  and  enthusiastically  about 
his  little  home  on  the  west  coast  and  his  family,  and 
looked  forward  to  the  time  when  he  could  go  back  to  his 
garden  and  his  flowers.  My  distress  was  intense  when  I 
learned  that  within  a  week  of  our  meeting  he  went  to 
the  bottom  in  the  Clan  line  steamer  he  commanded,  as  the 
result,  probably,  of  a  submarine  attack. 

One  of  my  friends  in  England  is  a  brave  naval  officer — 

Captain  B ,  who  has  been  engaged  in  perilous  work 

in  patrolling  the  coast,  constantly  exposed  to  attack  by 
German  submarines,  and  to  the  dangers  of  floating  mines. 
I  saw  him  before  he  departed  on  one  of  these  trips,  and 
gave  him  a  diminutive  Aztec  figure  for  good  luck.  A  few 
months  after,  he  wrote  me: 

"You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  little  Mexican  talisman 
you  gave  me  has,  so  far,  performed  its  good  office  in  the  most 
wonderfully  efficacious  manner.  Not  only  has  it  kept  me  free 
from  all  personal  harm,  but  it  seems  to  have  actually  brought 
me  a  measure  of  good  luck,  for  I  have  been  advanced  to  the  rank 
of  Commodore  since  I  saw  you.  There  is  a  very  curious  incident 
in  connection  with  this  mascot  which  is  enough,  in  itself,  to  make 
one  turn  thoroughly  superstitious !  The  last  time  I  was  in  Liver- 
pool it  was  very  hot,  so  I  left  off  my  waistcoat  and  with  it  my 
mascot  for  one  day.  Sure  enough,  I  met  the  only  bit  of  bad  luck 
that  has  come  my  way  since  you  gave  me  the  idol,  and  lost  a  roll 
of  ten  one-pound  notes.  It  really  looked  like  a  warning,  and 
you  may  be  sure  I  have  never  been  without  the  idol  for  one  mo- 
ment since  then!" 

Those  who  are  not  in  England  cannot  picture  the  calm, 
unsensational  attitude  of  the  British  who,  perfectly  sure 
of  the  righteousness  of  their  cause,  and  with  unwavering 
faith  in  their  own  courage,  are  pushing  on  to  the  bitter  end. 

262 


LONDON  IN  WAR  TIME 

Their  only  doubt  is  in  their  political  leaders,  and  their 
generally  expressed  disgust  with  the  antics  of  the  imma- 
ture and  talkative  Churchill,  or  the  meddlesome  North- 
chffe.  The  same  dangerous  interference  with  the  regular 
naval  and  military  branches  of  service  by  the  lawyer-poli- 
ticians has  always  existed  in  England  and  was  graphi- 
cally described  by  Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  who  in  his 
great  History  of  the  American  Revolution  forcefully  de- 
picted the  blundering  of  George  the  Third  and  his  Min- 
isters. It  is  an  evil  that  in  a  minor  degree  confronts  us 
at  home,  especially  during  the  past  two  or  three  years, 
thanks  to  ignorant,  opinionated,  and  narrow-minded  men 
who  antagonised  those  well-informed  professional  sailors 
and  soldiers  whose  warnings  have  been  frequent  and  in- 
sistent. 


263 


PART  TWO :   PROFESSIONAL 


PART  TWO:   PROFESSIONAL 


CHAPTER   XVI 

STEANGE  CASES 

An  Insane  Quack — A  Curious  Sequel  to  Novel  Reading — An  Anxious 
Wife — "Gentleman  Joe" — Pursued  by  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany— ^A  Precocious  Criminal — "Lewis  Jarves" — The  Robin 
Case — The  Diss  Debarr  Case — Harry  Kellar  Becomes  a  Convert 
to  Spiritualism — Washington  Irving  Bishop — ^A  Gruesome  Post 
Mortem — Poisoning  Cases. 

A  BUSY  professional  life  is  often  full  of  dramatic  episodes, 
and  probably  that  of  an  alienist  is  more  interesting  in 
this  way  than  any  other.  One  of  my  earliest  experiences 
was  a  call  to  see  the  head  of  one  of  the  disreputable  Mu- 
seums of  Anatomy  that  abounded  in  'New  York  forty  years 
ago,  when  the  police  did  not  disturb  them  and  they  were 
left  alone  to  prey  upon  the  community.  This  man  was 
an  English-Jew  who  had  acquired  an  enormous  fortune 
from  his  nefarious  practices.  He  lived  in  magnificent 
style,  dressed  expensively,  wearing  great  diamonds  and 
precious  stones  in  a  manner  only  comparable  to  the  late 
William  F.  Howe,  the  criminal  lawyer,  or  the  much  ad- 
vertised Diamond  Jim  Brady.  I  was,  with  a  great  deal 
of  mystery,  taken  to  his  home  in  one  of  the  old-fashioned 
mansions  in  Washington  Square,  originally  occupied  by 
some  rich  merchant  of  early  New  York.  In  a  dimly  lit 
back  room  I  found  the  patient — a  fat,  small,  red-faced  man 
clad  in  a  voluminous  robe  of  purple  satin  and  topped  with 

267 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

a  glistening  gilt  crown  sparkling  with  gems.  In  his  hand 
he  held  an  orb  which  was  studded  with  large  diamonds. 
About  him  were  huge  candelabra  containing  coloured  wax 
candles,  while  a  musical  box  tinkled  on  a  table  nearby 
which  also  held  a  censer  that  diffused  dense  clouds  of  in- 
cense. His  shiny,  tense,  and  puff'ed  face  and  inharmoni- 
ous play  of  expression,  his  constant  gibberish,  all  told  their 
story — ^he  was  the  victim  of  an  incurable  chronic  mania. 
I  could  not  help  thinking  that  the  wretched  creature  had 
been  punished  in  this  way  for  the  lives  he  had  wrecked  by 
his  cruel  quackery^  for  I  had  previously  seen  other  insane 
people  who  once  attended  his  museimi  and  who  had  been 
driven  mad  by  the  unreasoning  fear  for  which  he  was  in 
the  first  instance  responsible. 

It  is  not  often  that  the  unconscious  enactment  of  a  dream 
will  lead  to  such  serious  consequences,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr. 

P ,  a  well-known  lawyer,  who  was  a  diligent  reader 

of  Rider  Haggard.  He  had  one  night  become  so  fas- 
cinated with  the  chapter  in  which  Allan  Quartermaine*s 
adventure  with  the  giant  crabs  in  the  cave  are  thrillingly 
pictured  that,  when  he  fell  into  a  deep  but  troubled  sleep, 
the  exciting  incident  was  lived  over  in  vivid  dreams  and, 
when  the  part  came  where  the  horrid  things  crawled  from 
the  swiftly  moving  stream  to  attack  him,  he  actually  dove 
from  his  bed  to  the  floor,  where  he  was  found  by  his  wife. 
The  blow  was  found  to  be  sufficiently  violent  to  create  a 
serious  head  injury,  with  a  resulting  cerebral  hemorrhage. 
By  some  captious  people  this  might  be  taken  as  a  warning 
against  sensational  novel  reading. 

The  idea  of  some  persons  as  to  what  constitutes  insanity 
is  strange,  indeed.  One  morning  I  received  a  visit  from 
a  rather  excited  young  married  woman  who  came  to  tell  me 
of  her  worries  which  arose  from  her  marriage  to  a  young 
man  "who  seemed  to  have  undergone  a  remarkable  change 

268 


STRANGE  CASES 

since  the  Reverend  made  them  one  that  beautiful 

June  day";  she  was  sure  A was  losing  his  mind — 

Would  I  see  him?  She  proceeded  to  impart  to  me  a  list  of 
grievances  such  as  are  not  unusual  among  incompatible 
people;  and  considering  there  was  a  great  dilFerence  in 
their  worldly  position  and  finances,  and  that  the  woman 
was  plain  if  not  actually  ugly,  I  thought  I  might  easily 
make  a  diagnosis.  That  "I  might  examine  him  fully  and 
commit  him  to  an  asylum,"  he  was  to  call  the  next  morning, 
quite  alone.  At  the  appointed  hour  I  was  waited  upon 
by  a  remarkably  handsome  and  engaging  young  man.  He 
talked  for  an  hour  brilliantly  and  sanely,  and  I  soon  learned 
that  he  was  a  professor,  and  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  best- 
known  universities  in  the  United  States.  He  was  talented 
and  accomplished,  and  had  been  a  poor  boy  when  he  mar- 
ried this  rather  stupid  and  commonplace  woman,  presum- 
ably for  money  and  position,  but  her  jealousy  and  nagging 
had  been  his  punishment.  Of  course  we  both  laughed  at 
the  wife's  estimate  of  his  mental  condition.  To-day  he  is 
one  of  the  greatest  men  of  science  in  the  world,  the  winner 
of  a  Nobel  prize,  a  member  of  the  French  Academy,  and 
most  of  the  greater  Societies.  I  shudder  to  think  what 
would  have  become  of  him  had  I  been  less  careful. 

In  the  early  seventies  District  Attorney  Randolph  Mar- 
tine  sent  for  me  to  consult  about  a  man  who  had  been 
arrested,  and  whose  mental  condition  was  a  matter  of  dis- 
pute. He  was  known  as  Gentleman  Joe,  a  quite  different 
person  from  Hungiy  Joe,  the  notorious  confidence  man 
who  plied  his  trade  about  the  Grand  Central  Depot,  and 
one  who  had  apparently  no  hope  of  gain.  His  offence  con- 
sisted in  a  series  of  practical  jokes  of  great  magnitude 
which  were  undertaken  solely  for  the  notoriety  that  fol- 
lowed. Within  a  few  days  he  visited  certain  shops  and 
ordered  enormous  quantities  of  all  manner  of  merchandise 

269 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  be  sent  to  the  dwellings  of  prominent  men,  for  which 
they  were  subsequently  to  pay.  I  believe  one  of  the  chief 
victims  was  the  Reverend  Morgan  Dix.  One  fine  morning 
East  Twenty-fifth  Street  was  crowded  with  wagons  and 
drays  all  eager  to  deliver  a  strange  assortment  of  goods  of 
all  kinds  at  his  house.  These,  I  am  told,  included  a  grand 
piano,  several  sewing  machines,  groceries  and  wines,  a 
baby's  carriage,  agricultural  instruments,  and  a  dentist's 
drill  machine!  A  quiet  old  spinster  elsewhere  received  a 
bass  drum,  and  clergymen  were  expected  to  pay  for 
various  compromising  things,  such  as  poker  sets  and  coun- 
ters. 

The  wild  eccentricities  of  this  man  led  him  to  commit 
all  manner  of  freaks  in  less  than  a  week,  but  of  course 
his  arrest  was  inevitable  and  he  was  sent  to  an  asylum,  as 
there  were  other  evidences  of  derangement. 

It  is  a  common  thing  for  alienists  as  well  as  the  police  to 
be  approached  by  individuals  who  seek  protection  from  im- 
aginary enemies.  These  persons  are  usually  paranoiacs 
who  believe  themselves  to  be  the  victims  of  conspiracies 
and  persecution  by  people  who  are  jealous  of  their  success. 
One  of  these  was  a  man  who  had  invented  an  oil  stove 
who  accused  the  Standard  Oil  Company  of  seeking  to  en- 
compass his  ruin  and  of  actually  attempting  his  life.  He 
therefore  had  a  large  plate  of  boiler  iron  fastened  within 
his  office  window  to  interrupt  the  bullets  fired  by  the  paid 
assassins.  Another  lunatic  prepared  an  infernal  arrange- 
ment of  wires  and  a  shotgun,  and  nearly  killed  his  wife, 
while  a  third  devised  a  corslet  and  sleeves  full  of  sharp 
knives  which  he  wore  so  distributed  that  his  enemies  might 
not  forcibly  seize  him.  He  had  borrowed  this  idea  from 
the  Apache  who  had  been  arrested  by  one  of  the  police 
agents  of  M.  Lepine,  the  Prefet  of  Police  in  Paris,  some 
years  ago. 

270 


STRANGE  CASES 

Father  Thomas  Ducey  once  brought  to  my  office  a  very 
young  boy,  thirteen  years  old,  of  attractive  appearance  and 
manner — the  ideal  good  boy.  He,  however,  was  not  at  all 
so,  for  he  had  travelled  from  one  end  of  the  country  to 
the  other  forging  cheques  and  swindling  merchants  as 

might  a  clever  veteran  criminal.    Little  Dick  M was 

the  son  of  respectable  parents  in  a  small  Western  town, 
his  father  being  a  printer.  The  child  was  precocious  to 
a  degree,  and  quite  well  informed  in  business  matters  and 
methods. 

It  was  one  of  his  plans  to  deposit  a  small  sum,  say  five 
dollars,  in  some  bank  where  he  had  ingratiated  himself 
with  the  officials,  and  subsequently  make  false  entries  in 
his  pass  book  of  perhaps  seventy-five  dollars.  He  would 
then  show  the  book  to  some  one  whom  he  was  subsequently 
to  swindle,  presenting  a  cheque,  perhaps,  for  twenty-five 
dollars,  as  was  the  case  when  he  fleeced  Samuel  Adams; 
a  dry  goods  merchant  on  Sixth  Avenue.  When  arrested 
his  excuse  was  that  he  "had  made  an  unfortunate  mistake" 
and  had  "unwittingly  overdrawn  his  account."  He  haunted 
the  hotels,  sprucely  dressed  in  mannish  attire,  and  made 
friends  with  James  R.  Keene  and  John  W.  Gates,  the 
financiers,  charming  them  by  the  marvellous  tales  he  told, 
and  by  his  complete  assurance.  He  spoke  of  great  estates 
he  owned;  of  managing  a  newspaper  in  Jefferson  City, 
Missouri,  and  of  various  important  projects.  In  his  case 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  that  kind  of  moral  degenera- 
tion too  common  in  these  days,  with  a  certain  degree  of 
insanity  and  what  is  known  as  confabulation,  which  con- 
sists in  a  crazy  form  of  lying  and  exaggeration.  Judge 
Wyatt,  of  the  Children's  Court,  sent  him  to  the  Catholic 
Protectory,  and  I  have  not  heard  of  his  mode  of  life 
since.  When  arrested  his  portmanteau  was  found  to  con- 
tain playing  cards,  poker  chips,  and  receipted  bills  from 

271 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  best  hotels  throughout  the  country.  It  would  appear 
that  the  boy's  life  during  the  year  before  his  arrest  had 
been  marked  by  ingenious  and  consistent  swindling.  In 
Washington,  where  he  was  especially  active,  and  where  he 
was  finally  arrested,  he  lived  extravagantly,  taking  a  suite 
of  rooms  with  bath  at  the  Raleigh  Hotel  and,  when  he  dis- 
missed the  cab,  giving  the  driver  four  times  the  usual  fare. 

The  case  of  "Lewis  Jarves"  was  one  that  created  great 
consternation  in  New  York  in  1905.  This  was  the  nom 
de  Theatre  of  a  well-known  and  intelligent  lawyer  who 
had  occupied  an  excellent  position  at  the  bar,  and  had  good 
social  standing  as  well.  He  was  caught  writing  offensive 
letters  signed  "Lewis  Jarves"  to  various  persons  with 
whom  he  had  had  business  relations.    Some  of  these  praised 

the  business  acumen  and  diligence  of  X as  a  lawyer, 

and  some  threatened  persons  opposed  to  X in  legal 

proceedings  with  various  disagreeable  consequences  unless 
they  adopted  a  certain  course  of  action  advised  by  "Jar- 
ves."    Occasionally  the  letters  were  addressed  to  X 

himself,  and  were  shown  to  this  lawyer's  clients  as  explain- 
ing the  propriety  Of  certain  charges  for  services  against 
them  that  might  have  been  regarded  as  unreasonable. 

Other  more  serious  charges  were  brought  against  him, 
growing  out  of  this  correspondence,  the  result  being  that 
he  was  trapped,  an-ested,  tried  and  sent  to  the  Peniten- 
tiary on  Blackwell's  Island. 

I  had  known  him  for  many  years,  and  was  consulted 

by  his  lawyer.  Job  Hedges,  Esq.    I  felt  that  X was  to 

a  degree  insane,  and  only  partially  responsible  for  these 
vain  and  foolish  acts,  the  serious  nature  of  which  he  failed 

to  see.    I  had  known  that  X had,  as  "Lewis  Jarves," 

actually  sent  an  umbrella  as  a  present  to  his  wife,  saying 
what  a  good  fellow  her  husband  really  was,  and  had  in- 
dulged in  various  asinine  pranks  of  the  same  kind.    He 

272 


STRANGE  CASES 

is,  I  hear,  now  redeeming  himself  in  another  state  and 
has  made  new  friends. 

It  is  in  this  twentieth  century  an  almost  unheard-of 
thing  for  children  actually  to  deny  their  parents ;  in  fact, 
outside  of  the  pages  of  cheap  novels  I  have  scarcely  heard 
of  such  a  proceeding.  It  is  still  more  strange  a  thing  when 
the  father  and  mother  are  devoted  to  their  children  and 
respectable  people.  This  occurred,  however,  in  the  Kobin 
case  recently  during  an  examination  I  made  of  the  de- 
fendant, who  was  alleged  by  his  attorney,  William  Travers 
Jerome,  to  be  insane,  but  who  was  afterwards  found  to  be 
"sane  and  responsible,"  and  was  sentenced  to  the  Peniten- 
tiary. 

Joseph  Robin  or  Rabinowitz  and  his  sister.  Dr.  Louise 
Rabinowitz,  were  in  the  room  of  the  District  Attorney 
when  the  two  elderly  people  were  suddenly  introduced. 
When  the  weeping  mother  rushed  to  her  son  crying,  "Mein 
Sohn !  Mein  Sohn !"  he  rudely  repulsed  her  and  contempt- 
uously said,  "I  do  not  know  them,  I  never  have  seen  them 
before."  In  this  declaration  he  was  seconded  by  his  sister, 
who  also  repelled  their  advances.  It  was  the  claim  of 
Robin  and  his  sister  that  he  was  of  Royal  birth  and  had 
never  seen  his  actual  father  and  mother.  This  story  was 
apparently  false;  the  old  man,  who  was  so  brutally  cast 
off,  had  originally  been  a  prosperous  merchant  in  Odessa, 
and  from  him  the  prisoner  had  in  his  early  days  in  New- 
York  accepted  money.  He  had  always  lived  with  them 
until  he  had  become  prosperous  and  wrecked  the  banks 
with  which  he  had  been  connected.  I  have  never  seen  such 
an  exhibition  of  cold-blooded  behaviour,  and  pray  I  never 
may  in  the  future. 

Some  twenty  years  ago  the  painful  spectacle  was  wit- 
nessed of  a  distinguished  old  lawyer  entrapped  by  a  coarse, 
scheming  woman  spiritualist,  who  had  imposed  upon  him 

273 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

by  the  hackneyed  device  of  spirit  pictures.  From  time  to 
time  this  method  of  supernatural  communication  is  de- 
fended by  gulled  or  dishonest  people,  but  the  photographs 
brought  forward  have  invariably  been  found  to  have  been 
produced  by  chemical  and  optical  trickery.  The  late  Judge 
Daly  was  a  confirmed  spiritualist,  as  was  Luther  B.  Marsh, 
a  learned  and  cultivated  member  of  the  New  York  bar, 
and  both  were  credulous.  I  appeared  in  a  case  against 
"Madame"  Diss  Debarr,  who  had  been  largely  dependent 
upon  Mr.  Marsh's  bounty,  and  who  certainly  "worked" 
him  to  the  fullest  extent.  Her  method  was  first  to  exhibit 
a  perfectly  clean  canvas  upon  which  the  face  of  the  dead 
relative  was  to  appear,  then  after  putting  it  under  a  cloth 
on  an  easel  she  would  make  certain  "passes"  and  manipu- 
lations and  finally  displaj?-  an  oil  painting  of  the  alleged 
deceased — "a  true  spirit  picture,  painted  by  the  hand  of 
the  dead  friend."  This  trick  consisted  in  taking  a  paint- 
ing that  had  been  previously  executed  and  neatly  covering 
it  with  a  piece  of  specially  prepared  white  paper  with  an 
imitation  canvas  surface  attached  by  readily  soluble  paste 
to  the  face  of  the  portrait.  When  everything  was  ready 
and  the  victim  in  a  proper  condition  of  expectant  attention, 
the  medium,  under  cover  of  the  cloth,  would  wet  the  face 
of  the  picture  with  a  damp  sponge  that  she  had  previously 
hidden  and  deftly  remove  the  paper. 

She  was  finally  prosecuted,  and  it  was  at  her  trial  that  I 
appeared.  In  this  connection  a  good  story  was  told  me 
by  my  old  friend,  Harry  Kellar,  the  noted  prestidigitator, 
who  has  been  most  successful  in  exposing  the  slate  trick 
of  Slade  and  all  the  humbugging  of  generations  of  sharp- 
ers. He  told  me  that  at  one  time  he  wavered  in  his  oppo- 
sition to  spiritualism,  and  almost  became  a  convert  because 
once,  when  sitting  near  his  wife,  he  innocently  wondered 
whether  a  certain  thing  would  come  to  pass,  and  solilo- 

274 


^  a 


HOBIN  CONFRONTED  BY  HIS  OLD  PARENTS 

With  permission  of  the  'New  York  World 


STRANGE  CASES 

quised  aloud.  Instantly  three  knocks  were  heard,  which 
signified  "y^^*"  He  was  amazed,  and  repeated  this  ques- 
tion and  others,  while  other  positive  and  negative  responses 
were  elicited. 

Ten  years  after  his  mischievous  and  amused  wife,  not 
being  able  to  keep  the  secret,  told  him  that  she  possessed 
the  faculty  of  making  the  knocks,  a  gift  in  common  with 
the  celebrated  Fox  sisters,  and  had  made  the  sounds  that 
had  deceived  him.  At  our  last  meeting  he  told  me  of  cer- 
tain methods  of  mind  reading  and  mediumistic  communi- 
cation which  were  made  possible  by  the  principles  of  wire- 
less telegraphy — ^but  I  shall  guard  his  secret.  At  about  the 
time  of  the  Diss  Debarr  exposure  there  was  a  certain 
young  man  named  Washington  Irving  Bishop  who  was 
really  very  clever  in  meeting  the  most  difficult  mind-read- 
ing tests.  Things  were  even  hidden  in  remote  parts  of 
the  city  in  apparently  inaccessible  places,  and  he  would 
rush  out  of  the  house,  take  a  buggy  or  horse  car,  and  go 
directly  to  the  spot,  promptly  finding  the  hidden  object 
without  trouble  and  rarely  making  a  mistake.  He  did 
many  seemingly  wonderful  things  that  puzzled  not  only 
the  ordinary  observer  but  scientific  men  as  well,  and  he 
was  even  credited  with  telepathic  gifts.  At  times,  prob- 
ably as  the  result  of  auto-suggestion,  he  would  fall  into 
cataleptic  trances,  during  which  he  really  looked  as  if  he 
were  dead ;  in  fact,  in  one  of  these  he  really  died,  and  his 
family  physicians,  the  late  Dr.  J.  A.  Irwin  and  Dr.  Frank 
Ferguson,  proceeded  to  make  an  autopsy.  Bishop's 
mother,  who  was  an  elderly  and  very  excitable  woman, 
then  declared  that  he  was  quite  alive  when  the  post  mortem 
was  made,  and  that  the  doctor  had  really  killed  him.  She 
went  to  the  District  Attorney — ^Delancey  Nicoll — and  to 
the  Coroner,  and  a  hearing  took  place.  The  gruesome  ac- 
cusation was  found  to  be  actually  untrue,  and  Dr.  Fer- 

275 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

guson  was  of  course  vindicated.  The  fact  that  Bishop  dur- 
ing his  lifetime  had  these  trances  gave  a  certain  plausibil- 
ity to  the  charge,  for  he  had  invariably  recovered  in  a  short 
time;  but  there  were  unmistakable  signs  of  dissolution 
present  when  the  Doctor  and  Coroner  did  their  work  as 
required  by  law. 

Upon  several  occasions  I  have  taken  part  in  poisoning 
trials  which  are  happily  very  rare.  In  these  conviction  is 
difficult,  because  the  evidence  is  necessarily  circumstantial 
unless  there  be  a  confession.  In  some  of  these  I  was  as- 
sociated with  Dr.  Witthaus,  who  after  a  career  of  great 
distinction  died  during  the  past  year.  We  were  together 
in  the  Ford  and  Carlyle  Harris  cases  besides  several  minor 
affairs,  and  I  appeared  as  medical  adviser  for  the  defence, 
while  he  represented  the  prosecution  in  the  Molineux  trial. 
We  took  many  dreary  journeys  together  to  country  grave- 
yards, often  in  mid-winter,  and  upon  one  occasion  ex- 
humed the  body  of  Helen  Potts,  a  beautiful  young  girl 
who,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  she  had  been  buried  sev- 
eral months,  looked  almost  lifelike  in  her  simple  grey 
dress  embroidered  with  silver  and  her  tiny  slippers.  This 
was  a  cruel  murder  undertaken  by  an  unfeeling  medical 
student  who  mixed  morphine  with  quinine  in  the  capsules 
he  had  prepared  for  her,  evidently  carefully  putting  all 
the  morphine  in  one  capsule,  which  she  took  after  his  de- 
parture, and  while  he  was  away  from  New  York. 

The  trial  of  Roland  Molineux  was  one  that  kept  me  busy 
for  nearly  two  months,  for  my  sympathies  were  with  the 
young  man,  now  an  inmate  of  an  insane  asylum.  I  then 
believed,  as  I  do  now,  that  he  was  innocent;  and  fairly 
railroaded  to  the  death  house  in  the  first  trial.  Luckily 
a  second  trial  was  ordered  by  the  Court  of  Appeals,  when 
he  was  acquitted;  but  what  a  horror  the  year  in  the  con- 
demned cell  must  have  been ! 

276 


STRANGE  CASES 

One  of  the  disgraceful  things  at  the  trial  was  the  attempt 
to  utilise  the  Bernheim  method  of  suggestion  to  catechise 
a  stubborn  young  woman  witness.  Upon  this  occasion 
there  was  a  battle  royal  of  the  handwriting  experts  who, 
as  usual,  all  differed.  During  the  course  of  the  proceed- 
ings, as  the  result  of  a  dispute,  the  celebrated  "poison  pack- 
age" covering  was  sent  out  of  the  court-room  with  the 
person  to  whom  it  had  been  addressed  and  sent,  and  its 
superscription  was  dictated  to  him  with  the  request  that  he 
should  write  it.  It  was  somewhat  startling  to  find  that 
the  peculiar  mistake  in  the  original  (attributed  by  the 
prosecution  to  Molineux)  was  present  in  the  dictated  copy, 
but  no  one  but  myself  and  one  or  two  others  noticed  it. 

Dr.  Witthaus  was  always  in  demand  as  an  expert ;  but 
the  prosecuting  officers  for  some  time  before  his  death  pre- 
ferred to  employ  cheaper  and  less  efficient  chemists.  In 
the  Fleming  poisoning  case  this  was  done,  and  though  Dr. 
Witthaus  refused  to  testify  for  the  defence  he  advised  Mr. 
Brooke  in  the  conduct  of  the  case.  A  German  expert, 
of  apparent  slight  experience  and  reputation,  testified 
that  he  had  found  a  certain  poison  in  the  body  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  was  then  pinned  down  to  admit  that  his  entire 
operations  consumed  an  impossibly  short  time.  The  de- 
fence knew  that  this  was  doubtful,  so  they  made  him  enu- 
merate all  his  reactions  and  the  way  they  were  obtained; 
and  without  suspecting  the  drift  of  the  questions,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  entangle  himself  and  contradict  the  testimony 
he  had  given  when  he  first  went  on  the  stand.  It  really 
ought  to  have  taken  many  days  to  perform  all  these  inves- 
tigations, instead  of  the  few  hours  he  claimed.  As  con- 
tradictions of  this  kind  are  dangerous  in  poisoning  cases, 
the  jury  acquitted  the  prisoner. 


277 


CHAPTER   XVII 

j,  JUDGES^  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

Who  Are  Experts  and  Who  Are  Not — The  Difficulties  of  the  Hypo- 
thetical Question — Frequent  Unfairness  of  Prosecuting  Officers — 
The  Stephanie  Case — Trapping  an  Expert — Ultra-science  vs. 
Common  Sense — The  Value  of  the  Hatters'  Conformateur — The 
Too  Shrewd  Lawyer  and  the  Stupid  Witness — Unaccountable  Ac- 
tion of  Juries — Popular  Idea  of  What  Constitutes  Insanity — Old 
New  York  Lawyers — Joseph  H.  Choate,  in  the  Del  Valle  Case — 
Judge  Fullerton — Reminiscences  of  Noted  Criminal  Lawyers — 
Judge  Curtis  Defends  a  Kentucky  Lawyer  and  Is  Challenged  to 
Fight  a  Duel — Insane  Jurors  and  Judges — Brutal  Cross-examin- 
ers— The  Methods  of  English  Courts — The  Browning  Case — • 
Country  Juries  in  England — A  Somerset  Jury  and  Its  Verdict — 
Suggestions  for  Reform. 

The  execration  of  expert  testimony  by  the  courts,  press 
and  public,  is  an  instance  of  visiting  the  sins  of  the  many 
upon  the  few — thus  reversing  the  ordinary  run  of  this  well- 
worn  saying.  Of  necessity  there  can  only  be  a  compara- 
tively few  real  experts  in  any  branch,  but  the  temptation 
to  mercenaiy  or  ill-fitted  men  to  thrust  themselves  for- 
ward, when  occasion  offers,  and  take  the  witness  chair, 
is  often  encouraged  by  unscrupulous  members  of  the  sister 
profession  who  wish  to  "hire"  an  expert  to  swear  through 
their  case.  These  medical  Solons  are  often  successful  be- 
cause of  their  very  self-esteem,  and  recklessness  in  giving 
an  opinion,  and  by  the  display  of  a  manner  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  strikingly  professional.  I  have  known  many 
such  men.     One  was  a  brawny  blacksmith  who  left  the 

278 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

glowing  forge  to  study  medicine,  and  subsequently  to  swear 
in  Court  three  years  later;  the  other,  a  German  male  nurse 
who  graduated  after  a  two-year  course  in  a  mushroom 
medical  college  and  a  year  or  two  subsequently  gave  ex- 
pert testimony  in  important  cases. 

Judge  Woodward  in  an  address  upon  this  kind  of  tes- 
timony refers  to  a  distinguished  surgeon  who  was  ques- 
tioned by  the  opposing  counsel  as  follows:  "Isn't  it  fair 
to  assume  if  I  had  money  to  pay  the  physicians  for  their 
time  that  I  could  step  out  here  in  the  city  and  secure  half 
a  dozen  competent  physicians  who  in  answer  to  the  hypo- 
thetical question  put  by  the  district  attorney  would  give 
me  exactly  the  opposite  answer?"  To  which  the  response 
was — "I  think  it  is."  Now  while  the  idea  of  the  lawyer 
was  to  impugn  the  honesty  of  doctors  as  a  whole,  the  reply 
he  received  was  not  so  far  afield,  for  the  hypothetical  ques- 
tion as  usually  constructed  by  the  lawyer  is  susceptible  of 
any  answer,  or  more  often  of  none  at  all. 

With  a  certain  part  of  the  bar  the  idea  that  an  expert 
can  always  answer  a  hypothetical  question  with  the  sacrifice 
of  his  common  sense,  education  and  self-respect  is  the  ordi- 
nary one.  Sometimes  the  interrogator  who  propounds 
what  a  New  York  Alderman  once  called  a  "hypnotic  ques- 
tion" is  supported  by  the  judge,  and  the  unfortunate  doc- 
tor is  chided  for  his  stupidity.  The  more  sensible  law- 
yers, while  they  are  obliged  by  the  rules  of  their  profession 
to  use  this  way  of  eliciting  opinions,  regard  the  hypotheti- 
cal question  as  unsatisfactory  and  disingenuous.  It  often 
contains  nothing  more  than  the  impressions  of  ignorant  old 
people  or  servants,  inexperienced  doctors,  foolish  wives  or 
designing  children,  and  is  such  a  hodgepodge  of  nonsense 
that  no  man,  no  matter  how  great  his  penetration  and 
desire  to  help  matters,  can  make  head  or  tail  of  it.  Some- 
times it  is  the  other  lawyer  who  "frames"  it,  sometimes 

279 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  one  who  employs  him;  but  the  result  is  always  the 
same. 

Mr.  Wellman  in  his  book  upon  cross-examination  relates 
the  sharp  move  of  the  District  Attorney  in  the  Stephani 
case,  who  declined  to  examine  me  after  Mr.  Howe  had 
read  a  long,  tiresome  question  which  took  a  half  hour  to 
finish,  fearing  and  thinking  that  I  would  bring  out  some- 
thing that  might  help  the  prisoner.  Undoubtedly  this 
was  an  inspiration,  but  can  one  conceive  the  attitude  of  a 
public  prosecutor  whose  duty  it  is  to  present  all  the  evi- 
dence against  as  well  as  in  favour  of  the  man  in  the  dock? 
Speaking  of  this  unfairness,  there  has  always  been  too 
much  disposition  to  proceed  upon  the  lines  that  every  de- 
fendant is  guilty,  and  for  many  years  this  bias  against  the 
prisoner  and  his  rights  has  been  deplored  by  conservative 
members  of  the  bar. 

The  path  of  the  conscientious  expert  is  certainly  a  thorny 
one,  for  he  is  often  expected  to  be  practically  "on  tap," 
and  suit  his  testimony  to  the  side  that  employs  him,  and  if 
he  refuses  he  is  abused. 

The  so-called  expert  is  often  an  actor,  a  conceited  one, 
who  cultivates  a  pompous  manner,  always  lacking  mod- 
esty, and  often  boring  the  court  and  jury  with  his  list  of 
qualifications — if  he  has  them.  With  some  of  these  men 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  pseudo-science,  and  their  vulner- 
able point  is  the  quotation  of  "authorities."  Most  judges 
will  only  allow  textbooks  to  be  used  in  cross-examination 
to  minimise  the  force  of  the  assertions  of  the  expert  himself 
— ^but  sometimes  the  eager  medical  witness  employs  them 
in  another  way  when  he  gets  the  chance.  Some  years  ago 
I  was  hastily  summoned  by  an  assistant  Corporation  Coun- 
sel who  was  defending  a  suit  brought  by  a  young  Ger- 
man workman  who  had  been  injured  in  the  street.    Upon 

280 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

reaching  the  court  room,  I  found  my  legal  friend  in  a  great 
state  of  anxiety,  for  upon  the  witness  stand  was  an  in- 
dividual who,  in  the  language  of  an  irreverent  friend,  evi- 
dently had  the  judge  and  jury  "feeding  out  of  his  hand." 
All  were  evidently  impressed  by  his  testimony  and  the 
case  was  going  badly  for  the  City. 

The  "expert"  was  a  tall,  sallow  man,  with  long  hair,  like 
an  "Indian  Doctor,"  and  a  most  insinuating  and  impres- 
sive manner.  On  his  lap  was  a  large  anatomical  atlas, 
while  everywhere  about  him  were  medical  books  which 
constituted  a  formidable  armamentarium.  It  did  not  take 
long  to  perceive  that  he  was  preaching  the  most  mislead- 
ing medical  bosh — pointing  out  improbable  lesions  on  the 
map,  and  drawing  conclusions  which  were  ridiculous;  yet 
it  was  all  done  in  the  manner  of  the  man  who  sells  some 
cure-all  in  a  village  street;  the  gullible  juiy  nodded  its 
heads  in  approval,  and  I  thought  his  Honour  looked  in- 
tensely bored.  I  was  not  only  convinced  that  the  man 
was  an  impostor  and  an  ignoramus,  but  that  he  probably 
had  no  intimacy  whatever  with  the  literature  of  nervous 

disease.    During  recess  I  saw  Mr.  W ,  the  defendant's 

lawyer,  and  between  us  we  prepared  a  list  of  ten  books, 
eight  of  which  had  no  existence,  but  with  plausible  titles ; 
and  two  books  in  everyday  use. 

Upon  his  return  to  the  witness  chair  after  luncheon  the 
witness,  flushed  with  victory,  confidently  took  his  seat  and 
looked  with  supercilious  pity  upon  the  quiet  lawyer  who 
arose  and  proceeded  to  cross-examine  him  about  as  follows : 

Mr.  W. :    "Dr.  Blank,  I  see  you  are  familiar  with  the 

literature  of  this  interesting  subject " 

Dr.  B.:    "Well,  I  should  hope  so!" 
Mr.  W.:     "Have  you  read  Smith  on  the  Recent  and 

281 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

B emote  Effects  of  Head  Injuries?"  (One  of  the  bogus 
books. ) 

Dr.  B.:    "That  book  I  read  when  a  medical  student." 

Mr.  W with  a  grave  face  went  through  the  list. 

Strange  to  say,  the  doctor  had  read  every  non-existent 
book  except  one — and  he  did  not  know  the  other  two,  one 
of  which  was  Erichsen's  well-known  treatise  upon  Concus- 
sion. I  subsequently  testified  to  my  part  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  cross-examination,  and  there  was  a  roar  of 
laughter  as  the  discomfited  man  left  the  court  room  with 
his  armful  of  "authorities." 

The  really  able  physician  is  himself  often  impractical, 
and  may  with  perfectly  good  intent  say  and  do  foolish 
things  although  he  knows  better.  In  an  Italian  murder 
trial  in  which  I  appeared  for  the  people  much  testimony 
had  been  given  by  an  anthropologist  and  craniologist  in 
regard  to  the  peculiar  shortness  of  the  head  of  the  de- 
fendant. So  improbable  was  his  testimony  that  on  my 
way  down  town  the  next  morning  I  stopped  at  the  shop 
of  Dunlap,  the  hatter,  and  procured  a  number  of  con- 
format  eur  tracings,  which  I  gave  to  the  District  Attorney, 
whose  first  words  to  the  witness  who  resumed  his  place 
on  the  stand  were,  "Doctor,  eoctreme  length  of  the  head 
is  also  a  stigma  of  insanity,  is  it  not?"  To  which  the  wit- 
ness at  once  assented.  "Now,  doctor,  I  will  show  you 
some  tracings  and  get  you  to  give  your  opinion  of  their 
meaning."  The  witness  at  once  admitted  that  they  looked 
as  if  they  might  have  been  made  from  the  heads  of  in- 
sane people — "in  fact,  he  was  quite  sure  that  all  these 
people  were  insane  to  some  degree,"  or  words  to  that 
effect.  "Well,"  said  his  merciless  cross-examiner,  "would 
it  surprise  you  to  know  that  the  first  series  were  taken 
from  the  heads  of  William  H.  Vanderbilt  and  his  sons, 

^82 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

and  the  last  is  from  the  head  of  his  Honour ^  the  judge  who 
presides  in  this  case?''  The  explosion  that  followed  can 
well  be  conceived,  and  no  punishment  for  contempt  fol- 
lowed. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  gentlemen  of  the  bar  often 
underrate  the  intelligence  of  the  victims  they  strive  to 
entrap,  even  if  these  are  not  experts. 

Mr. is  a  noted  cross-examiner  and  was,  I  am  told, 

the  lawyer  for  the  defence  in  an  accident  case  in  which 
he  sought  to  fix  by  a  witness  the  time  it  took  a  street 
car  to  travel  a  certain  distance  and  reach  a  point  where  ^ 
an  accident  occurred.  Mrs.  O'Brien  was  an  honest  and 
quiet  Irish  woman  who  gave  her  estimate  of  the  period 
as  one  of  five  minutes.  "Now,"  said  the  little  lawyer  with 
toleration  mixed  with  great  amiability,  which  is  character- 
istic, and  smiling  sweetly:  "Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you 
can  tell  the  jury  the  ecvact  time?"  and  taking  out  his  watch 
with  his  back  to  the  witness  and  his  face  to  the  jury,  he 
kept  talking  to  them,  balancing  on  one  foot  and  then  on 
the  other,  and  beaming  as  if  it  were  a  huge  joke  that  he 
was  telling  to  his  most  intimate  friends.  He  kept  this 
attitude  until  a  voice  with  a  rich  brogue  said:  "Faith, 
the  toime  is  up!"  and  it  was  exactly.  Wheeling  about 
in  surprise,  the  lawyer  demanded  to  know  "by  what  process 
of  ratiocination"  the  conclusion  had  been  reached.  "Rat- 
tycination,  d'ye  call  it,  faith,  how  could  oi  help  it  with 

the  clock  forninst  me?"    During  Mr. 's  pleasantries 

she  had  looked  across  the  court  room  and  quietly  watched 
the  long  hand  as  it  pursued  its  way  to  the  end  of  the  five 
minutes.  ) 

The  popular  idea  of  what  constitutes  insanity  is  not  only 
amusing,  but  it  is  no  wonder  some  one  said,  "God  alone 
knows  what  a  petit  jury  will  do."  An  attendant  at  the 
Tombs  lately  told  me  that  he  believed  a  certain  prisoner 

283 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

was  insane  because  "he  always  minded  his  own  business." 
A  clever  medical  expert,  who  should  have  known  better, 
recently  said  that  a  negro  defendant  in  a  murder  case 
had  general  paresis,  because  he  had  undergone  a  degenera- 
tion of  his  moral  sense.  Considering  the  fact  that  the 
murderer  was,  and  always  had  been,  a  well-known  thief, 
gambler,  "gunman";  had  spent  most  of  his  life  in  prison; 
and  when  out  had  brought  terror  to  every  one,  the  doctor's 
view  of  the  case  is  at  least  surprising. 

In  the  past  forty-two  years  I  have  known  most  of  the 
sterling  old  criminal  lawyers  of  New  York,  and  have  faced 
many  of  them  upon  the  witness  stand.  Some  are  dead 
and  gone,  such  as  Charles  Spencer,  John  Graham,  Wm. 
A.  Beach,  Charles  Brooke,  Henry  Clinton,  Benjamin 
Phelps,  Daniel  Bollins,  and  the  picturesque  Chauncey 
Shaffer — others  are  to-day  practising  law  and  no  one 
would  suppose  they  were  over  eighty.  In  other  times  it 
was  a  pleasure  to  cross  swords  with  such  veterans  as  Jo- 
seph H.  Choate,  John  E.  Parsons,  and  Judge  William 
Fullerton,  three  clean-cut,  intellectual  leaders  of  their  pro- 
^•fession,  one  of  whom  is  alive  to-day,  with  all  his  intellectual 
f powers  intact:    I  refer  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Choate. 

Judge  Fullerton  was  a  remarkably  thorough  and  per- 
sistent lawyer,  and  had  a  detective's  talent  for  getting  evi- 
dence. I  can  recall  the  case  of  the  family  of  a  suicide  who 
sued  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  the  contention 
being  that  the  man  was  insane.  In  the  possession  of  the 
lawyer  for  the  insurance  company  was  an  important  docu- 
ment that  had  been  typed  and  which  it  was  important  that 
Fullerton  should  obtain.  At  the  opening  of  Com't  he 
demanded  it  from  his  adversary,  who  insisted  that  he  had 
no  knowledge  of  it,  and  indignantly  repelled  the  accusa- 
tion that  it  was  in  his  possession.  As  his  position  at  the 
bar  was  of  the  highest,  and  he  was  the  exemplar  of  gen- 

284i 


''K 


ycms^cyA.     /vT^^, 


JOSEPH    HODGES    CHOATE,    ESQ. 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

eral  morality,  every  one  sympathised  with  him,  but  when 
Mr.  Fullerton  called  a  stenographer  and  typist  to  the 
stand  to  trace  the  history  of  the  document,  he  paused  and 
looked  at  his  adversary,  who  as  quietly  drew  the  desired 
paper  from  under  the  blotter  in  front  of  him,  and  with 
face  reddened  with  the  blush  of  shame  handed  it  to  the 
other  lawyer.  The  young  woman  on  the  stand  had  type- 
written the  precious  document  that  very  morning,  and 
Fullerton  knew  it. 

I  was  present  in  the  court  room  during  the  trial  of  the 
famous  Del  Valle  case  in  which  Mr.  Choate  appeared. 
Del  Valle  was  a  rich  Spanish  or  Cuban  planter  who  one 
day  gallantly  helped  to  her  feet  a  pretty  young  fellow 
countrywoman  who  had  slipped  upon  the  icy  pavement  at 
the  corner  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Twenty-ninth  Street  in 
alighting  from  an  omnibus.  This  acquaintance  ripened 
into  friendship,  and  the  very  attractive  young  girl,  Mar- 
tinez by  name,  was  installed  in  the  Del  Valle  home  to  teach 
the  motherless  children  of  the  rich  widower. 

After  a  reasonable  time  the  new  governess,  believing 
that  her  affections  were  being  trifled  with,  and  that  her 
generous  patron  had  not  kept  faith  with  her,  brought  suit 
for  breach  of  promise,  claiming  unusual  recompense.  She 
engaged  as  her  counsel  the  venerable  Wm.  A.  Beach,  who 
not  only  had  quite  a  reputation  in  this  kind  of  action,  but 
was  something  of  a  gallant  himself.  Del  Valle  retained 
Mr.  Choate,  and  the  trial  of  the  case  occupied  many  days. 
No  one  can  ever  forget  the  delicious  ragging  of  Beach 
by  Choate,  and  the  latter 's  reference  to  "the  danger  of 
picking  up  a  fallen  woman." 

Many  of  the  old  lawyers  had  their  peculiarities,  either 
physical  or  mental,  which  were  reflected  in  their  dress — 
they  wore  showy  jewelry,  a  dainty  flower  in  the  button 
hole,  or  a  conspicuous  necktie  of  lurid  hue.     Several  of 

285 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

them  prided  themselves  upon  their  resemblance  to  Na- 
poleon, and  cultivated  the  forelock,  among  these  being 
George  M.  Curtis,  who  in  his  day  was  a  keen,  successful 
lawyer,  and  who  made  life  miserable  for  the  expert  who 
was  not  ready.  Curtis,  who  was  an  agreeable  man  and 
quick  at  repartee,  told  me  once  of  an  amusing  experience 
he  had  in  Kentucky,  where  he  was  called  to  defend  a  gen- 
tleman who  had  killed  a  judge,  a  near  relation  of  his  own, 
I  believe.  Curtis  was  not  always  careful  about  the  per- 
sonalities he  used,  and  in  the  course  of  the  trial  reflected 
upon  his  opponent  in  such  a  way  that  a  challenge  was 
immediately  sent  to  him.  As  he  said  he  "hardly  knew  a 
pistol  from  an  arquebus"  but  he  "had  to  fight  or  lose  his 
case";  so,  having  the  choice  of  weapons,  he  did  a  plucky 
thing  and  bluif  ed.  His  selection  was  that  pleasant  kind 
of  encounter  known  abroad  as  an  American  duel,  which 
is  to  fight  across  a  table — and  which  means  certain  death 
for  both  combatants.  It  is  only  proper  to  say  that  the 
"bluff  worked,"  and  he  returned  to  New  York  in  high 
feather,  having  acquitted  his  client  amid  salvos  of  applause, 
as  a  tribute  to  his  personal  bravery  and  sound  legal  knowl- 
edge. 

It  seems  incredible  that  it  should  be  so,  but  the  expert 
is  often  called  upon  to  pass  upon  the  sanity  of  a  judge  or 
juror.  I  am  prevented  from  mentioning  the  names  of 
those  that  are  dead  and  gone,  but  much  trouble  has  oc- 
curred from  the  conduct  and  injustice  of  the  vindictive  or 
befuddled  occupants  of  the  judge's  chair  who  have  lost 
their  minds,  and  at  least  one  much-loved  official  who  died 
insane,  in  his  last  years  fairly  emulated  Lord  Braxfield, 
the  Scotch  hanging  judge,  in  the  severity  of  his  sentences. 
In  this  connection,  the  story  of  an  eccentric  judge,  Mr. 
Justice  Maule  of  England,  is  worth  repeating:  "In  the 
old  days  when  a  prisoner  said,  T  can  get  God  to  witness 

286 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

that  I  am  innocent/  the  judge  waited  ten  minutes  and 
having  informed  the  accused  that  he  had  done  so  to  give 
him  time  for  his  witness  to  appear,  proceeded  with  the 
case."  I  have  been  consulted  by  dissenting  lawyers  in 
cases  when  jurymen  have  actually  gone  mad  during  a  trial, 
or  have  been  epileptic,  or  have  indulged  in  alcoholic  ex- 
cesses in  the  jury  room.  Strange  to  say,  it  is  rarely  that 
such  a  happening  is  allowed  to  interrupt  a  trial  or  interfere 
with  a  verdict. 

Sometimes  a  case  may  be  sent  to  an  eccentric  or  paranoid 
lawyer,  who  is  in  every  way  unfit  to  pass  intelligent  judg- 
ment upon  the  evidence.  I  remember  an  instance  of  this 
kind  where  the  referee  absolutely  ignored  the  testimony 
of  the  medical  men,  and  produced  an  opinion  of  his  own, 
giving  his  "scientific"  views  in  a  truly  astonishing  way. 
As  a  psychopathic  exhibition  it  was  a  curiosity.  Such  a 
man  is  really  more  dangerous  than  an  ignorant  one. 

The  treatment  of  experts  and  the  conduct  of  cases  is 
little  changed  from  what  it  was  forty  years  ago.  Perhaps 
the  lawyers  do  not  roar  at  the  doctor  on  the  stand  as  much 
as  did  one  Moak,  an  Albany  legal  light,  who  would  throw 
women  witnesses  into  hysterics;  but  violent  and  unfair 
cross-examination  is  often  an  abuse,  and  must  disgust  the 
bench,  who  can  do  little  to  curb  it.  A  well-informed,  self- 
possessed  expert  does  not  mind  the  furious  onslaught 
that  may  be  made  on  him  by  lawyers  of  this  kind,  but  he 
detests  the  tiresome  quibbling  that  is  happily  to-day  not 
so  common  as  it  was  formerly.  I  can  remember  an  experi- 
ence when  for  three  days  I  was  cross-examined  by  a  very 
pompous  and  conceited  young  lawyer,  my  direct  exami- 
nation having  lasted  less  than  ten  minutes.  It  was  like 
some  intricate  game  of  words,  which  was  finally  stopped 
by  a  patient  judge  who  mildly  lectured  the  lawyer  for 
consuming  the  time  of  the  court  by  "such  tom-foolery." 

287 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

The  methods  of  the  Enghsh  courts  are  not  favourable  to 
the  prolonged  trials  that  have  always  been  a  scandal  in  the 
United  States,  for  the  proceedings  are  straightforward, 
and  orderly,  and  one  never  hears  the  acrimonious  disputes 
that  often  take  place  between  counsel,  or  the  injection  of 
trivial  technicalities  which  are  so  common  in  American 
courts.  Sir  James  Crichton-Browne,  of  whom  I  have  be- 
fore spoken,  and  who  is  at  the  head  of  English  Psychia- 
trists, wrote  me  in  1907  apropos  of  a  recent  disgraceful 
murder  case  that  had  been  tried  in  New  York:  "What  a 
prodigious  waste  of  time  there  has  been  in  this  case !  We 
should  have  settled  it  at  the  Old  Bailey  in  12  hours  and  the 
prisoner  would  have  found  himself  in  Paradise  or  in 
Broadmoor  *  without  delay.  What  must  the  Pilgrim  Fa- 
thers think  of  this  portentous  fungoid  growth  of  the  sim- 
ple little  seed  they  planted?"  I  was  present  some  years 
ago  when  a  man  named  Browning  was  being  tried  in  Lon- 
don for  murdering  his  wife  by  strangling  her  with  a  shoe 
lace.  I  was  greatly  struck  with  the  good  sense  and  dig- 
nity displayed  by  all  in  the  court  room.  The  prisoner 
was  assuredly  guilty,  but  tried  to  prove  an  ahbi  without 
success;  he  was  convicted  and  promptly  executed.  The 
trial  lasted  but  a  few  days ;  within  two  weeks  he  was  quietly 
hung,  and  there  was  no  publicity.  Lord  Alverstone,  the 
Chief  Justice,  was  upon  the  bench ;  and  the  kindly  conver- 
sational tone  of  his  examination  of  the  wretched  creature 
in  the  Dock,  who  was  given  every  chance  to  explain  and 
clear  himself  if  possible,  was  very  commendable.  Ques- 
tions were  put  to  the  prisoner  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice 
which  had  evidently  been  overlooked,  not  only  by  the  pris- 
oner's lawyer,  Marshall  Hall,  K.  C,  but  by  the  prosecutor 
as  well,  and  no  objections  were  made  by  either  side.  One 
*  The  Criminal  Insane  Asylum  in  Berkshire. 

288 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

could  not  help  realise  the  absolute  fairness  of  the  trial  and 
the  justice  of  the  verdict. 

When  the  question  of  insanity  arises  in  such  cases,  the 
English  jury  simply  finds  upon  the  evidence,  and  non- 
expert medical  witnesses  may  be  called  to  testify  to  facts ; 
after  conviction  the  Home  Secretary  sends  his  own  expert 
to  examine  the  condemned,  and  if  found  insane,  the  latter 
is  sent  to  the  criminal  asylum  at  Broadmoor.  It  would 
indeed  be  an  advance  in  our  jurisprudence  if  this  became 
the  custom  here,  although  the  measure  recommended  by  my 
friend.  Dr.  Stedman  of  Boston,  of  keeping  men  whose  de- 
fence is  insanity  under  watch  at  some  state  asylum  before 
the  trial,  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  often  deter- 
mines with  accuracy  their  real  condition  and  responsibility. 

The  urban  jury  in  England  is  usually  a  sensible  body, 
composed  of  intelligent  men,  which  in  measure  compares 
with  our  selected  panels  here ;  while  in  remote  country  dis- 
tricts they  are  a  stupid  and  obstinate  lot,  and  governed 
by  all  manner  of  influences,  except  the  evidence.  The  fol- 
lowing account  of  the  deliberations  of  a  West  Coast  jury 
will  give  an  idea  of  what  is  meant,  and  I  am  indebted  for 
this  to  an  English  friend  who  was  present  at  the  local  as- 
sizes. 

In  a  small  Somersetshire  town  a  young  doctor  was  tried 
for  having  murdered  his  wife's  mother  by  poisoning  her 
with  arsenic  put  in  her  food  whilst  she  was  visiting  at  his 
house.  The  evidence  at  the  trial  was  conclusive,  and  the 
judge's  summing  up  was  strongly  against  the  prisoner. 
But  to  the  astonishment  of  every  one,  including  the  judge 
and  the  prisoner,  the  jury  after  having  been  locked  up  for 
some  hours  brought  in  a  verdict  of  Not  Guilty.  And 
this  is  how  the  foreman  of  the  jury  explained  the  reason 
for  acquitting  the  prisoner.  He  was  asked  why  on  earth 
they  brought  in  a  verdict  of  not  guilty  in  face  of  the  clear 

289 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

evidence  of  guilt.  He  was  quite  angry  and  his  reply  was 
given  to  my  friend  as  follows : 

"There  now,  Mr.  H ,  how  foolish  you  do  talk,  and 

you  not  knowing  what  passed  before  the  jury  when  we  was 
locked  up  all  day  with  no  fire  and  nothing  to  eat  and  noth- 
ing to  drink.  There  we  was  locked  up  in  that  there  room 
talking  about  the  crops  and  the  stock,  and  about  Farmer 
Hodge  being  turned  out  of  his  farm  and  about  sich  things, 
and  'twere  getting  on  latish  and  we  was  a  goodish  way( 
from  home,  some  of  us,  and  had  no  vittles  and  no  drink,  so 
I  rapped  my  knuckles  on  the  table,  and  asked  them  what 
we  was  going  to  do  about  the  case,  and  my  neighbour  Jones 
said  I'd  better  ask  them  one  at  a  time. 

"So  I  said  first  to  the  man  on  the  right  what  do  you  say 
about  this  'ere  case;  be  we  going  to  bring  in  guilty  or  not? 

"He  said :  'You'd  better  pass  me  over  and  ask  somebody 
else;  I'll  say  same  as  the  rest.' 

"So  I  went  on  to  the  next  and  he  said,  'Well,  Mr.  Fore- 
man, it's  like  this  yere ;  I  believe  he  killed  the  ould  woman, 
but  then  I  know  he  saved  dree  lives  to  my  sartin  knowl- 
edge, and  all  ov  um  young  ones,  and  if  you  draw  dey  dree 
young  lives  agin  one  ould  wumman,  and  her  his  mother- 
in-law  and  all  why  the  balance  is  in  his  favour,  therefore 
I  don't  think  it  would  be  right  to  hang  'im.' 

"And  the  next  man  he  says :  'Look  yere,  Mr.  Foreman, 
we  do  know  as  these  ere  doctors  be  pretty  free  with  their 
physics  and  their  pisons,  and  we  do  know  as  they  must 
practise  'pon  somebody  and  I  say  it's  greatly  to  his  credit 
he  practised  on  a  old  woman  instead  of  a  young  un,  con- 
sequently 'twouldn't  be  fair  to  hang  'im,  zeein'  he  was  only 
in  pursoot  of  knowledge.' 

"So  then  I  asked  a  man  tother  side  of  the  table,  and  he 
said:  'I  don't  care  which  way  'tis.  He  didn't  deal  at  my 
shop,  never  hot  a  farden's  worth  o'  me,  therefore  I  don't 

290 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

see  why  I  should  give  in  my  vardict — ^but  hangin'  he  won't 
bring  she  to  life  and  won't  do  me  no  good,  so  you  can  plaize 
yourself.' 

"Passin'  on  to  the  next  man  tother  side,  I  says:  'Now 
what's  your  opinion  about  this  'ere  case?' — and  he  ups  and 
says  in  a  milk-and-water  sort  of  voice :  'I  bant  for  no  high- 
handed, neck  or  nothing  measures — give  him  dree  months 
in  the  Debtors'  Court ;  that'll  cure  'im,  I  do  know,  for  I  bin 
there  myself/ 

"Then  I  asked  the  next  man,  and  he  spoke  up  very 
fierce.  'Look  here,  Farmer — Foreman,  I  do  mean,'  says 
he,  'I'll  speak  to  'e  plain.  I've  got  on  a  new  pair  of 
breeches  and  I'll  sit  here  till  they  be  wore  out,  afore  I  do 
find  this  man  guilty.  I've  a  got  his  life  'pon  the  lease  of 
my  vaom,*  and  I  baint  zich  a  vule  as  to  kill  'im  afore  'is 
time — pretty  fool  I  should  look  hangin'  a  man  a  losin'  me 
vaom;  I  shan't  do  it  to  plaize  you  nor  the  judge  nor  no- 
body else.  Not  guilty  for  me.  Farmer — Foreman,  I  do 
mean,'  says  he. 

"Then  I  took  a  man  down  bottom  of  the  table.  'Mr. 
Cobb,'  says  I,  'what  you  got  to  say?'  And  he  spoke  up 
at  once  like  a  man,  and  says  he,  'I  baint  what  you  mid  cull 
certain  whether  he  pisoned  the  old  woman  or  whether  he 
didn't,  so  I  shall  do  same  as  I  always  does  in  unsartain 
jobs  and  try  this  here  man  with  a  lucky  saxpence — Heads 
for  hanging  of  'im,  tails  for  letting  of  'im  off.'  So  he 
chucks  up  the  saxpence,  and  looks  to  see  what  'twas  come 
down  (he  wouldn't  let  nobody  else  look),  and  tails  he  says 
quite  pleased  like — 'Put  I  down  that  I  be  against  hanging 
of  'im.' 

"That  was  seven,  you  see,  for  letting  of  'im  off,  and  we 
had  been  there  all  day  with  nothing  to  eat  and  nothing  to 
drink — but  for  safety's  sake  I  thought  I'd  just  ax  one 

*  Farm. 

291 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

more — and  I  shall  always  respeck  that  man  to  my  dyin' 
day  because  he  spoke  up  so  clear  through  knowin'  his  own 
mind. 

"  'Winnick/  sajrs  I  (call  o'  'im  Mr.  Jones  immejiantly 
after  'cause  I  didn't  think  'twas  right  for  the  foreman  of 
the  jury  to  call  a  man  by  his  nickname,  not  on  a  hangin' 
job)  5  'Mr.  J  ones f  says  I,  'what  do  you  think  is  best  to  do 
about  this  here  case?'  And  he  spoke  out  sharp  at  once — 
says  he:  'If  you're  going  to  'ang  'im,  why  'ang  'im.  If 
you  don't  'ang  'im  now  he'll  come  'anging  some  day,  I 
don't  doubt.  But  if  you're  gwain  to  quit  'im,  why  quit  'im 
— ^whichever  way  you  do,  plaize,  Mr.  Foreman,  only  for 
any  sake,'  says  he,  'let's  shut  it  up  and  finish  the  job.  I 
be  tired  o'  it  and  wants  to  get  home  along  my  Missis  ben 
waiting  supper  for  me  this  hour  and  more.' 

"So  I  reckoned  up  again  for  to  make  sure,  and  we  had 
eight  out  of  the  twelve — ^there  werdn't  no  call  to  ask  the 
rest.  The  majority  always  do  carry  the  minohty  and  of 
course  I  brought  it  in  not  guilty. 

"And  then  you  come  to  me  and  you  do  say  however  did 
we  come  to  let  'im  off — and  you  not  knowing  what  passed 
afore  the  jury  when  we  was  locked  up  all  day  wi'  no  fire 
and  nothing  to  eat  and  nothing  to  drink. 

"Foolishness,  I  do  call  it." 

The  ways  of  petit  juries  everywhere  are  inscrutable, 
especially  if  the  foreman  happens  to  be  something  of  a 
crank  himself,  or  owns  a  compendium  of  household  medi- 
cine to  which  he  has  access  after  court  hours.  Again,  they 
are  swayed  by  misplaced  and  undeserved  sympathy,  or 
are  influenced  by  the  Court  as  in  a  recent  case  in  New 
York  when,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  thirteen  experts 
were  in  accord  in  the  opinion  that  the  prisoner  was  insane, 
and  there  was  no  dissenting  voice  except  that  of  the  de- 

292 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

fendant  himself,  they  quickly  found  him  sane,  and  re- 
ceived the  endorsement  of  the  presiding  judge. 

All  technical  questions,  either  of  insanity  or  of  any  other 
medical  nature,  should  be  decided  by  qualified  representa- 
tives of  the  Court  instead  of  by  twelve  men  who  are  indif- 
ferent to,  or  uninfluenced  by  testimony  they  do  not  in  the 
least  understand  and  they  should  not  be  expected  to  pass 
upon  these  matters.  In  this  connection  the  following  anec- 
dote of  an  absent-minded  judge  occurs  to  me.  "Gentle- 
men of  the  jury,"  said  his  Honour,  "the  prisoner's  plea  is 
insanity.  That  is  the  question  to  be  settled;  is  he  insane 
or  not?  On  that  point  he  is  to  be  judged  by  a  jury  of  his 
peers." 

Possibly  much  of  the  difficulty  of  juries  in  giving  a  ver- 
dict in  these  case's  arises  from  the  present  interpretation 
of  "right"  and  "wrong"  by  the  courts,  the  psychiatrist  rec- 
ognising the  absolute  interference  with  responsibility  by 
reason  of  existing  delusions,  although  the  defendant  may 
have  an  actual  knowledge  of  what  he  did,  and  that  it  is 
punishable  by  human  law. 

Since  the  birth  of  my  interest  in  Medical  Jurisprudence 
nearly  half  a  century  ago,  I  have  been  concerned  in  the 
trial  of  more  than  one  hundred  murder  trials  where  in- 
sanity has  been  the  issue,  either  going  upon  the  witness 
stand,  or  acting  in  an  advisory  capacity.  After  all  these 
years,  I  can  but  regret  the  insufficiency  of  our  laws,  and 
the  proverbial  unfairness  of  the  Courts  who  are  disinclined 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  progressive  example  of  other 
Nations,  and  to  disregard  as  well  the  advances  of  medical 
science.  At  the  same  time  the  administration  of  justice 
has  in  this  respect  become  imperfect,  especially  because 
some  of  those  upon  the  bench  are  both  afraid  of  the  mob 
and  despise  the  teachings  of  psychiatiy.  While  many 
judges  are  enlightened  men  as  well  as  fair  and  independ- 

293 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ent,  and  always  courteous  to  the  members  of  my  profes- 
sion, there  are  others  who  are  ignorant,  opinionated  and 
bullying,  and  never  lose  a  chance  to  indulge  in  insult  and 
petty  tyranny.  While  stern  censure  is  sometimes  de- 
served, these  men  do  not  discriminate  in  their  treatment 
of  experts,  and  the  better  class  of  self-respecting  med- 
ical men  now  refuse  to  give  opinion-evidence,  for  they 
have  no  redress  and  no  protection.  It  is  also  rather 
hard  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  men  whose  deplorable  igno- 
rance in  almost  every  direction  is  still  more  hopeless  when 
it  comes  to  medicine.  One  pompous  little  judge,  whose 
appearance  upon  the  bench  is  entirely  due  to  his  lavish 
contributions  to  a  notorious  political  machine,  refused 
once  to  approve  of  a  commitment  paper  I  had  made  and 
taken  to  him,  as  is  the  law,  for  his  approval,  because  I  said 
therein  that  a  certain  patient  had  both  hallucinations  and 
delusions,  a  combination  familiar  to  alienists.  He  said: 
"I  will  not  sign  that — ^he  must  have  one  or  the  other,  and 
you  must  strike  out  either  'hallucination'  or  'delusion,'  " 
which  I  did,  as  the  patient  was  then  at  an  up-town  hotel 
threatening  to  cut  his  wife's  throat,  but  I  sent  a  letter  to 
the  asylum  physician  explaining  the  matter,  and  saving 
my  reputation  as  an  alienist. 

Another  judge  always  delighted  in  showing  oiF  his  ab- 
solutely erroneous  knowledge  of  mental  disease  by  a 
harangue  to  those  in  the  court  room,  and  by  propounding 
to  the  doctor  on  the  stand  asinine  questions  which  he  could 
not  answer,  no  matter  how  much  disposed  he  might  be  to 
illuminate  his  Honour. 

But  they  are  not  all  of  this  kind,  for  I  have  met  some 
unusually  well-informed  gentlemen,  including  the  late  Mr. 
Justice  Edward  Patterson,  who  often  by  his  knowledge 
of  medical  jurisprudence  materially  helped  to  facilitate 
the  progress  of  the  case. 

294. 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

The  history  of  English  and  American  decisions  regard- 
ing the  responsibility  of  the  criminal  insane  need  not  be 
here  gone  into,  for  it  is  at  best  a  long  and  dreary  recital  of 
confused  injustice;  but  I  may  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  as  late  as  1723  there  was  no  standard  of  responsibility, 
and  even  then  Lord  Onslow  held  "that  it  was  not  every 
kind  of  frantic  mood  or  something  unaccountable  in  a 
man's  actions  that  points  him  out  to  be  such  a  madman  as 
is  exempt  from  punishment.  It  must  be  a  man  who  is 
totally  deprived  of  his  understanding  and  memory  and 
does  not  know  what  he  is  doing  any  more  than  an  infant  or 
a  brute  or  a  wild  beast.  Such  is  never  the  subject  of  pun- 
ishment." This  manner  of  considering  responsibility  re- 
mained in  force  until  the  year  1800,  when  Hadfield  at- 
tempted to  shoot  King  George  the  Fourth  in  Drury  Lane 
Theatre,  and  Erskine  first  laid  down  the  doctrine  of  delu- 
sion as  the  real  test  of  mental  responsibility.  Twelve  years 
later,  in  the  Dillingham  case,  it  was  held  that  though  a  man 
might  be  incapable  of  transacting  his  ordinary  business 
affairs,  he  must  also  be  so  influenced  by  his  disease  as  not' 
to  know  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong.  The 
McNaughton  case  when  the  prisoner  killed  the  secretary 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel  by  mistake,  and  as  the  result  of  an 
insane  delusion,  created  much  discussion  in  1843,  and  was 
the  precedent  for  other  decisions  that  are  accepted  to-day. 
In  the  United  States,  however,  there  has,  nevertheless, 
been  a  disposition  to  depart  from  the  English  law,  the  re- 
sult being  that  few  judges  can  be  brought  to  interpret  dis- 
qualifying insanity  in  the  same  way.  The  words  of  the 
statute  are  taken  literally,  and  all  that  is  required  to  con- 
stitute responsibility  is  what  may  be  called  a  technical 
knowledge  of  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong, 
which  many  insane  persons  have.  Then,  too,  few  jurists 
are  disposed  to  admit  any  intermediate  degrees  of  lim- 

295 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ited  responsibility,  and  those  hideous  examples  of  whole- 
sale murder,  of  which  the  recent  Waite  case  and  those  of 
Holmes  and  others  are  familiar,  are  treated  with  scornful 
intolerance.  While  as  an  economic  proposition  it  is  best 
to  exterminate  these  people,  as  one  would  vermin,  what 
can  be  said  of  the  literal  jurist  who  seeks  to  apply  to  them 
only  the  right-and- wrong  test,  and  the  lawmaker  who  does 
not  provide  rational  tests  of  culpability  other  than  those 
of  the  present  existing  Draconian  law?  There  is  at  least 
one  sensible  and  adequate  decision — that  of  Chief  Justice 
Perly  of  New  Hampshire,  who  said  to  the  jury  in  the  Pike 
case ;  "You  have  only  to  consider  first,  whether  the  pris- 
oner was  labouring  under  a  mental  disease,  and  secondly, 
such  being  admitted,  whether  the  acts  in  question  were  the 
offspring  of  that  disease." 

The  verdict  in  a  recent  notorious  murder  case  which 
was  "acquitted  by  reason  of  insanity,"  led  to  all  manner 
of  tiresome  litigation  with  enormous  cost  to  the  state. 
Had  the  verdict  been  of  the  English  kind — "Guilty  but 
insane,"  there  would  have  been  no  chance  for  later  habeas 
corpus  proceedings,  for  the  reversal  of  the  last  part  of  the 
verdict  would  have  subjected  the  defendant  to  the  full 
punishment  of  a  responsible  man.  The  English  law  is 
therefore  to  be  recommended,  for  the  only  office  of  the 
jury  after  all  is  to  find  the  defendant  "guilty"  or  the  re- 
verse. The  Crown  then  sends  its  own  expert  to  make  a 
final  decision  after  an  examination,  and  it  is  not  often 
that  an  innocent  man  is  hung  or  that  a  guilty  person 
escapes. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  nowadays  so  little  attention  is 
paid  by  the  bar  to  the  medical  jurispmdence  of  insanity, 
and  that  so  few  lawyers  who  go  into  court  are  well 
equipped.  Perhaps  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
no  proper  chairs  for  the  subject,  either  in  the  medical  or 

296 


JUDGES,  EXPERTS  AND  JURIES 

law  schools,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  casual  lectures 
the  graduating  student  has  no  instruction  whatever.  I 
know  no  lawyer  to-day,  except  Mr.  Jerome,  who  is  at  all 
conversant  with  the  most  elementary  psychiatry  as  applied 
to  court  work.  There  are  many  who  pretend  to  be  capa- 
ble, among  them  a  persistent  and  insignificant  man  who 
has  written  stories  for  a  sensational  illustrated  weekly. 
In  the  olden  days  there  were  excellent  legal  advisers,  the 
greatest  of  which  was  the  late  Dr.  John  Ordronaux. 


SOY 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

Uncertainty  of  Testators — Whims  of  Elderly  People — Eccentricity — 
The  Belief  in  Spiritualism  and  Other  Isms — Commodore  Van- 
derbilt's  Will — Louis  Bonnard  Leaves  His  Property  to  Found  a 
Home  for  Stray  Dogs  and  Cats — An  Eccentric  Young  Woman — 
Elderly  Women  Marry  Young  Men — The  Winter  Case — What 
Constitutes  Testamentary  Capacity? — ^A  Curious  Will — Aphasia 
—The  Parish  Will  Case. 

What  constitutes  a  "good  will"  has  been  the  subject 
of  innumerable  contests,  and  of  course  widely  differing 
legal  decisions,  for  there  is  no  branch  of  civil  jurispru- 
dence that  has  led  to  such  acrimonious  and  obstinate  fights. 
All  the  selfishness  of  human  nature  is  aroused  when  the 
question  of  alleged  neglect  or  injustice  of  a  testator  is 
concerned.  There  is  often  some  one  who  is  left  out  of 
consideration — perhaps  a  distant  relative,  less  often  some 
one  closely  connected  with  the  decedent,  such  as  the  wife, 
or  daughters,  or  sons,  or  an  only  sister,  as  was  the  case  in 
the  Hewitt  will.  In  this  case  when  an  insane  old  man 
himself  had  the  insane  delusion  that  this  near  relative  and 
next  of  kin  had  delusions,  he  left  most  of  his  property 
to  various  institutions,  cutting  her  off  completely,  and 
not  even  giving  her  the  family  silver  which  was  in  his 
custody. 

It  is  by  no  means  unusual  for  old  people,  through 
motives  of  vanity  or  growing  indifference,  not  amounting 
to  mental  disease,  or  as  the  result  of  some  actual  twist  in 

298 


WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

the  processes  of  the  mind,  to  leave  the  bulk  of  a  fortune 
to  various  public  charities,  colleges  or  benevolent  societies 
of  which  they  possibly  know  nothing,  and  in  which  they 
have  no  real  interest.  Sometimes  it  is  pure  spite  that 
leads  to  these  bequests  as  was  the  case  of  a  rich  man  who 
recently  died  and  who  entertained  a  deep  hatred  towards 
his  wife  and  daughter  who  had  for  some  years  lived  apart 
from  him  because  of  his  gross  immoralities  which  they  had 
by  accident  discovered.  Happily  these  cases  are  settled 
as  a  rule  in  such  way  as  to  avoid  a  disgusting  public 
hearing. 

During  the  past  forty  years  I  have  had  some  connection 
with  a  great  deal  of  will  litigation,  and  think  I  may  safely 
say  that  of  perhaps  three-fourths  of  all  the  wills  where 
there  was  a  dispute  the  merits  were  very  clearly  upon  the 
side  of  the  proponent,  so  that  the  instrument  has  been  sus- 
tained, even  if  it  was  unjust  and  the  maker  ungenerous. 

Too  often  mere  evidences  of  eccentricity  are  urged  by 
those  who  would  break  a  will. 

Mere  disproportion  in  the  division  of  property,  or  eccen- 
tricity, is  not  necessarily  evidence  of  testamentary  inca- 
pacity; and  although  the  law  is  very  cautious  in  regard 
to  the  question  of  undue  influence,  great  care  should  be 
taken  to  distinguish  cases  in  which  the  individual  defers 
with  perfect  propriety  to  the  suggestions  of  intelligent  and 
lifelong  friends  instead  of  bad  children  who  never  have 
shown  any  filial  respect  or  interest  in  the  testator  until 
the  question  of  the  division  of  property  has  been  raised. 
When,  on  the  other  hand,  a  kind  father  whose  relations 
with  his  children  are  of  the  pleasantest  kind,  becomes, 
during  the  latter  years  of  life,  morose,  irritable,  and  shows 
unwarrantable  dislike  or  neglect  without  cause,  with  moral 
and  intellectual  weakness,  grave  doubts  arise. 

Eccentricity  should  not  be  misunderstood  or  looked 

^99 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

upon  as  disease;  nor  should  superstitious  belief,  or  the 
striking  exaggerations  of  character  that  we  sometimes  find 
in  old  age.  The  belief  in  Spiritualism,  or  any  other  is7n 
which  perhaps  leads  the  testator  to  leave  a  legacy  to  some 
religious  body,  no  matter  how  irregular,  is  not  necessarily 
an  evidence  of  insanity,  and  should  not  be  so  considered. 
In  courts  of  law  it  is  often  contended  that  because  the 
individual  wears  certain  loud  colours,  and  ungainly,  con- 
spicuous dress,  or  because  he  eats  or  drinks,  or  walks  or 
sleeps  in  an  unusual  way,  he  is  of  unsound  mind.  Not  only 
lifelong  peculiarities,  but  personal  traits  which  may  be 
the  offspring  of  ignorance  or  vanity  or  even  vulgarity 
may  sometimes  be  sufficient  in  the  eyes  of  snobbish  or 
ungrateful  children  to  stamp  their  parent  as  of  unsound 
mind. 

Mere  vanity  or  credulity  upon  the  part  of  the  maker  of 
a  will  is  not  sufficient  to  interfere  with  testamentary 
capacity  unless  there  be  actual  delusions  of  personality. 
I  was  called  in  the  trial  of  two  wills  made  by  such  people. 
One  was  that  of  a  very  rich  and  insane  woman  who  despite 
her  peculiarities  knew  all  about  her  affairs,  could  enu- 
merate all  her  securities,  and  had  the  most  pleasant  rela- 
tions with  those  who  were  the  objects  of  her  bounty  and 
with  the  next  of  kin;  yet  she  directed  that  "a  shaft  of 
marble  higher  than  any  in  the  world"  should  be  erected 
over  her  grave.  I  saw  much  of  her  during  the  latter  part 
of  her  life,  and  she  always  received  me,  even  in  the  morn- 
ing, in  a  low-cut  wedding  dress  of  white  satin,  her  neck 
and  wrists  encircled  by  necklace  and  bracelets  of  enor- 
mous diamonds;  her  hair  was  entwined  with  artificial 
orange  blossoms,  and  she  had  all  the  manner  of  a  young 
bride.  Another  case  where  this  kind  of  vanity  was  con- 
spicuous was  that  of  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  who  left 
the  bulk  of  his  fortune  to  his  son  William  H.  Vanderbilt 

300 


WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

and  a  comparatively  small  sum  to  each  of  his  several 
daughters.  These  women  delved  into  the  life  of  this  rather 
irascible,  vulgar  and  positive  old  man,  but  could  find  no 
serious  evidence  of  incompetence.  It  was  stated  that  his 
credulity,  especially  about  his  bodily  ailments,  led  him 
upon  one  occasion  to  send  a  lock  of  his  hair  to  a  clairvoyant 
in  the  upper  part  of  New  York  state,  who  directed,  after 
she  had  made  a  diagnosis,  that  he  should  anoint  himself 
with  cow  dung,  which  the  daughter  said  he  seriously  did. 
He  also  directed  that  a  gigantic  shaft  of  marble  at  least 
one  hundred  feet  high  should  be  placed  over  his  remains. 

As  the  will,  harsh  as  it  seemed,  was  in  conformity  with 
the  old  man's  wish  that  his  immense  fortune  should  be 
kept  intact,  and  that  the  great  New  York  Central  Rail- 
road be  developed  to  its  utmost,  it  was  logical  enough. 
I  appeared  in  the  case;  I  was  cross-examined  for  a  few 
minutes  by  Joseph  H.  Choate,  but  after  I  knew  all  the 
facts  withheld  by  the  people  who  retained  me,  I  quite 
agreed  with  him  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  disposition.  The 
expert,  then,  who  gives  ex-parte  testimony  is  often  put  in 
a  false  position  when  he  is  not  placed  in  possession  of  all 
the  available  evidence. 

I  appeared  in  a  proceeding  where  the  testator's  dislike 
of  poverty  and  beggars  was  alleged  to  be  disqualifying 
evidence  of  a  man's  inability  to  make  a  proper  will.  This 
was  the  question  that  arose  in  the  Ivison  matter  where  the 
will  was  contested  by  some  of  his  relatives,  among  them  a 
nephew  who  was  aggrieved  because  the  old  testator  gave 
the  greater  part  of  the  estate  to  another  nephew.  The 
opinion  of  Justice  McLaughlin,  when  the  case  was  ap- 
pealed, held  that  because  a  man  was  a  miser,  handling  his 
money  and  saying,  "This  is  my  God,"  leaving  the  barber's 
chair  with  lather  on  his  face  to  chase  away  an  organ 
grinder,  making  his  wife  buy  her  bonnets  out  of  season 

301 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

to  get  material  reductions  in  cost,  he  was  not  of  necessity 
oblivious  to  the  rights  of  others,  or  prevented  by  these 
peculiarities  from  knowing  the  condition  of  his  money 
affairs. 

There  are  two  cases  of  interest  that  illustrate  the  atti- 
tude of  the  law  even  where  a  peculiar  person  makes  be- 
quests of  a  strange  and  seemingly  insane  character.  The 
first  of  these  was  that  of  Louis  Bonnard,  a  believer  in 
metempsychosis,  who  left  his  worldly  possessions  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  a  home  for  cats  and  dogs,  alleging 
that  as  his  reincarnation  might  be  in  the  body  of  some 
stray  domestic  animal,  he  wished  it  well  looked  after.  This 
will  stood. 

Another  was  that  of  a  young  lady  named  Wilton  who 
made  a  large  bequest  to  the  Society  for  the  Prevention 
of  Cruelty  to  Animals  as  she  was  devoted  to  horses.  At 
the  trial  it  was  shown  that  she  had  directed  that  her  favour- 
ite mount  should  be  shod  with  silver  shoes  and  buried  at 
Pike's  Peak  beneath  the  inevitable  tall  column  of  stone 
that  seems  so  often  to  play  a  part  in  the  mortuary  affairs 
of  eccentric  individuals.  This  will  was  also  supported, 
for  there  was  no  one  who  had  a  special  claim  upon  her  and 
the  disposition  of  her  wealth  was  in  consistent  accord  with 
her  frequently  expressed  intentions. 

I  have  been  called  into  several  contests  where  aged 
women  have  married  very  young  men,  and  have  made  wills 
cutting  off  their  natural  heirs.  As  this  amorous  recrudes- 
cence is  very  common  in  aged  people  of  both  sexes,  many 
unjust  dispositions  of  property  are  made,  and  as  a  rule 
there  is  little  remedy.  This  erotic  weakness  of  human 
nature — so  conspicuous  in  the  early  days  of  the  Oneida 
Community  when  elderly  men  became  enamoured  of  verj^- 
young  women  or  girls,  and  women  advanced  in  life  pre- 
ferred the  devotion  of  young  men  and  boys — leads  to 

302 


WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

foolish  and  ill-assorted  marriages,  and  persons  of  advanced 
age  are  likely  to  become  the  prey  of  young  adventurers. 
I  have  known  of  many  such.  About  sixteen  years  ago  I 
was  consulted  about  the  will  of  a  rich  old  woman  named 
Hunt  who,  after  the  death  of  her  second  husband,  mar- 
ried, at  the  age  of  seventy-one,  a  young  lawyer  who  was 
thirty-nine  years  her  junior.  She  had  just  before  her 
marriage  to  him  been  engaged  to  two  men,  and  had  re- 
ceived the  attentions  of  several  others,  one  of  whom  was 
"a  nice  young  man  who  was  to  leave  with  her  the  elixir 
of  life." 

She  pencilled  her  eye-brows,  used  rouge,  and  dyed  her 
hair,  becoming  frivolous  and  silly.  At  the  age  of  seventy- 
five  she  died,  when  her  will  was  contested  by  her  next  of 
kin,  but  was,  nevertheless,  admitted  to  probate  as  it  stood. 

The  law  is  certainly  lenient  in  such  matters,  being  in- 
fluenced by  an  altogether  too  zealous  protective  spirit 
toward  elderly  people,  some  of  whom  are  indeed  quite 
unfit  to  care  for  themselves  or  their  belongings.  The  mere 
fact  that  a  person  is  insane  and  has  delusions  does  not,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  law,  prevent  him  from  making  a  will  that 
will  be  upheld;  even  the  inmates  of  asylums  have  made 
valid  wills;  but  if  they  have  been  previously  declared  in- 
competent by  a  Commission  de  Lunatico  InquirendOj  and 
deprived  of  their  right  to  manage  or  dispose  of  their 
property,  of  course  they  can  do  nothing,  nor  can  they  make 
any  instrument  that  is  valid. 

Under  the  law  the  delusions  of  a  lunatic  who  makes  a 
will  must  affect  his  relations  with  those  who  have  a  claim 
upon  him,  or  prevent  him  from  knowing  the  extent  and 
nature  of  his  possessions.  He  may  even,  perhaps,  go  so 
far  as  to  have  the  false  idea  that  there  is  a  barrel  in  his 
cellar  containing  a  dead  body  which  he  orders  removed,  or 
illusions  that  his  legs  are  made  of  glass,  but  they  may  not 

303 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

interfere  with  his  abihty  to  dispose  of  his  holdings.  If  a 
testator,  however,  labours  under  the  delusion  that  she  is 
being  persecuted  or  poisoned  by  a  devoted  husband,  son 
or  daughter;  or  that  they  are  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to 
injure,  ruin  or  defraud  her;  and  she  acts  upon  such  mis- 
conceptions to  their  detriment,  then  her  will  is  apt  to  be 
upset,  especially  if  their  former  relations  have  been  pleas- 
ant and  undisturbed. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  law  a  testator  must  intelligently  know 
those  who  have  a  claim  upon  him,  so  that  insanely  unjust 
suspicions  and  beliefs  are  incompatible  with  normal  testa- 
mentary capacity. 

The  very  conventional  judge,  or  the  matter  of  fact  jury, 
though  on  the  whole  just,  cannot  sometimes  escape  the 
impression  that  an  erratic  or  unusual  will  is  the  work  of  a 
madman;  but  such  an  instrument  even  if  made  by  the 
subject  of  a  mental  disorder  may  bear  inherent  evidences 
of  great  intellectual  strength.  There  is  one  of  this  kind 
in  existence  made  by  a  patient  in  a  Western  Asylum  in 
this  country  which  has  been  found  somewhere  by  E.  V. 
Lucas,  the  discriminating  and  poetical  essayist,  and  repro- 
duced by  him.  It  is  certainly  a  charming  example  of  old- 
fashioned  gentleness  and  sweetness,  no  matter  how  dis- 
ordered the  person  may  have  been  in  other  ways. 

"That  part  of  my  interest  which  is  known  in  law  and  rec- 
ognised in  the  sheep-bound  volumes  as  my  property,  being  incon- 
siderable and  of  no  account,  I  make  no  disposal  of  in  this,  my 
will. 

"My  right  to  live,  being  but  a  life  estate,  is  not  at  my  disposal, 
but,  these  things  excepted,  all  else  in  the  world,  I  now  proceed  to 
devise  and  bequeath: 

""Item:  I  give  to  good  fathers  and  mothers,  in  trust  for  their 
children,  all  good  little  words  of  praise  and  encouragement,  and 
all  quaint  names   and  endearments,  and  I  charge  said  parents 

304j 


WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

to  use  them  justly  and  generously,  as  the  needs  of  their  children 
may  require. 

"Item:  I  leave  to  children  inclusively,  but  only  for  the  term 
of  their  childhood,  all  the  blossoms  of  the  woods,  with  the  right 
to  play  among  them  freely  according  to  the  customs  of  children, 
warning  them  at  the  same  time  against  thistles  and  thorns.  And 
I  devise  to  children  the  banks  of  the  brooks,  and  the  golden 
sands  beneath  the  waters  thereof,  and  the  odours  of  the  willows 
that  dip  therein,  and  the  white  clouds  that  float  high  over  the 
giant  trees.  And  I  leave  to  children  the  long,  long  days  to  be 
merry  in,  in  a  thousand  ways,  and  the  night  and  the  moon  and 
the  train  of  the  Milky  Way  to  wonder  at,  but  be  subject,  never- 
theless, to  the  rights  hereinafter  given  to  lovers. 

"Item:  I  devise  to  boys  jointly  all  the  useful  idle  fields  and 
commons  where  ball  may  be  played;  all  pleasant  waters  where 
one  may  swim;  all  snow-clad  hills  where  one  may  coast,  and  all 
streams  and  ponds  where  one  may  fish,  or  where,  when  grim 
winter  comes,  one  may  skate;  to  have  and  to  hold  the  same  for 
the  period  of  their  boyhood.  And  all  meadows  with  the  clover 
blossoms  and  butterflies  thereof,  and  the  woods  and  their  appur- 
tenances, the  squirrels  and  birds  and  the  echoes  and  strange 
noises,  and  all  distant  places  which  may  be  visited,  together  with 
the  adventures  there  found.  And  I  give  to  said  boys  each  his 
own  place  at  the  fireside  at  night,  with  all  pictures  that  may 
be  seen  in  the  burning  wood,  to  enjoy  without  let  or  hindrance 
and  without  any  incumbrance  of  care. 

"Item:  To  lovers  I  devise  their  imaginary  world,  with  what- 
ever they  may  need ;  as  the  stars  of  the  sky,  the  red  roses  by  the 
wall,  the  bloom  of  the  hawthorn,  the  sweet  strains  of  music  and 
aught  else  by  which  they  may  desire  to  figure  to  each  other  the 
lastingness  and  beauty  of  their  love. 

"Item:  To  young  men  jointly  I  devise  and  bequeath  all  bois- 
terous, inspiring  sports  of  rivalry,  and  I  give  to  them  the  dis- 
dain of  weakness  and  undaunted  confidence  in  their  own  strength, 
though  they  are  rude;  I  give  them  the  power  to  make  lasting 
friendships-,  and  of  possessing  companions,  and  to  them  exclu- 

305 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

sively  I  give  all  merry  songs  and  brave  choruses,  to  sing  with 
lusty  voices. 

''Item:  And  to  those  who  are  no  longer  children  or  youths  or 
lovers,  I  leave  memory,  and  I  bequeath  to  them  the  volumes  of 
poems  of  Burns  and  Shakespeare  and  of  other  poets,  if  there 
be  others,  to  the  end  that  they  may  live  over  the  old  days  again, 
freely  and  fully,  without  tithe  or  diminution. 

"Item:  To  our  loved  ones  with  snowy  crowns  I  bequeath  the 
happiness  of  old  age,  the  love  and  gratitude  of  their  children 
until  they  fall  asleep." 

Lucas  in  commenting  upon  this  remarkable  man  said, 
"One  would  like  to  know  more  about  Charles  Louns- 
bury.  Surely  he  is  one  of  the  most  uncommon  men  that 
have  died  for  some  time — perhaps  since  Abou  Ben  Adhem. 
Not  only  great  wits,  but  also  great  lovers  of  their  kind, 
would  seem  to  be  to  madness  near  allied." 

There  have  been  many  actions  for  the  prevention  of 
probate  of  testators  who  have  been  the  victims  of  that 
interesting  condition  known  as  aphasia,  which  consists  in 
the  loss  of  the  power  of  speech,  or  inability  to  understand 
written  or  spoken  words  (visual  and  auditory  aphasia). 
The  trouble  is  not  due  to  any  defect  in  the  organs  of 
speech  themselves,  but  it  follows  some  affection  of  the 
cerebral  convolution  in  which  the  faculty  is  situated.  The 
contest  of  the  litigant  is  that  the  maker  of  the  will  cannot 
express  himself,  often  saying  "yes"  when  he  means  "no," 
and  is  oblivious  of  his  mistake.  In  the  determination  of 
the  importance  of  aphasia  as  a  symptom  in  any  particular 
case  we  must  discover  whether  or  not  it  is  connected  with 
insanity.  In  a  will  case  in  which  I  was  recently  called  to 
testify,  the  patient  had  an  attack  of  right-sided  paralysis 
with  aphasia.  She  had  always  been  a  person  of  weak 
mind,  and  her  mental  degeneration  deepened  towards  the 
later  years  of  her  life.    A  peculiarity  of  her  aphasia  which 

306 


WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

was  almost  complete,  was  that  she  reversed  the  positive 
and  negative  in  the  aforementioned  way,  and  the  state  of 
her  intellect  was  such  as  to  prevent  her  from  realising  her 
mistake  despite  all  my  efforts:  she  was  of  course  incom- 
petent. The  sane  aphasic  will  usually  recognise  his  mis- 
takes and  either  attempt  to  correct  them  or  express  puz- 
zled annoyance;  the  insane  aphasic  makes  no  such  at- 
tempt, and  his  mental  condition  is  not  indicative  of 
the  fact  that  he  retains  a  realisation  of  his  error.  All 
of  this  means  that  a  testator,  when  asked  if  the  will 
he  is  to  sign  is  an  embodiment  of  his  wishes  and  direc- 
tions, may  quite  unconsciously  say  just  what  he  does 
not  mean,  making  an  affirmative  answer  instead  of  a 
negative. 

One  of  the  classical  American  trials  in  which  this  ques- 
tion arose  was  that  of  Delafield  vs.  Parish.  The  decedent 
Parish  had  as  the  result  of  an  apoplexy  developed  a  right 
hemiplegia  with  aphasia,  spasms  and  convulsions  of  an 
epileptiform  nature.  The  power  of  speech  was  mainly 
abrogated  on  his  first  attack  and  he  thus  could  have  little 
communication  with  those  about  him;  therefore,  when  he 
made  his  will  and  subsequently  three  codicils  it  was  as- 
sumed that  he  gave  affirmative  replies  to  the  questions  of 
the  lawyers,  but  this  was  disputed  by  certain  relatives  who 
brought  a  contest  and  were  sustained.  From  the  onset  of 
the  aphasia  to  his  death  he  was  never  able  to  utter  any- 
thing except  a  few  imperfectly  articulated  monosyllables. 
These  were  principally  "y^s"  and  "no"  which  he  pro- 
nounced very  imperfectly;  there  is  even  great  doubt 
whether  he  ever  uttered  them  intelligibly.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  trial  the  charge  of  Judge  Noah  Davis  was  as 
follows:  "All  the  testimony  shows  that  he  could  only 
indicate  with  his  fingers  and  hands,  or  by  sounds  which 
were  construed  by  those  around  him  as  evidences,  his 

SOT 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

wish  to  put  a  question ;  whereupon  they  began  to  suggest 
various  topics,  and  when  they  thought  they  perceived  that 
they  had  hit  upon  the  subject  in  his  mind,  which  they 
supposed  he  wished  to  inquire  about,  they  put  such  ques- 
tions as  suggested  themselves  to  them,  to  which  they  as- 
sumed they  had  received  affirmative  or  negative  answers. 
If  Mr.  Parish  had  no  power  to  express  a  wish  to  destroy  a 
will,  it  follows  he  had  none  to  create  one,  and  the  mani- 
festation of  his  wishes  depended  entirely  upon  the  inter- 
preter and  the  integrity  of  the  interpretations.  It  is  thus 
seen  that  great  difficulty  and  uncertainty,  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  attended  any  expression  of  the  thoughts  or  wishes 
of  Mr.  Parish;  and  that  a  large  number  of  those  having 
business  or  intercourse  with  him  utterly  failed  to  attach 
or  obtain  any  meaning  to  his  signs,  sounds,  motions,  or 
gestures.  The  natural  and  obvious  deductions  to  be  made 
from  all  these  facts  and  circumstances  are :  that  Mr.  Parish 
had  no  ideas  to  communicate,  or,  if  he  had  any,  that  the 
means  of  doing  so  with  certainty  and  beyond  cavil  and 
doubt  were  denied  him."  Mr.  Parish  was  therefore  de- 
cided to  be  incompetent. 

I  have  upon  several  occasions  been  associated  with  Elihu 
Root ;  in  the  Jesse  Hoyt  will  case  we  were  in  court  several 
weeks.  He  is  a  wonderful  trial  lawyer  and  a  resourceful 
cross-examiner.  He  never  resorts  to  any  of  the  petty 
tricks  that  are  so  popular  with  little  men,  but  is  calm  and 
watchful  of  the  interests  of  his  client;  and  when  he  ad- 
dresses the  jury  he  is  indeed  convincing,  A  rather  funny 
story  is  told  of  his  appearance  in  court  some  years  ago 
when  he  was  cross-examining  a  fat,  red-nosed  man.  The 
lawyer  who  called  the  witness  said  to  the  presiding  judge, 
"This  witness,  your  Honour,  is  a  responsible  citizen.  He 
holds  a  most  important  position.  In  fact  he  is  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  water  works." 

308 


^^i^r^^^jt^^^^z^,c^ 


ELIHU    ROOT,   ESQ. 


WILL-MAKING  AND  BREAKING 

When  Root  came  to  cross-examine  the  witness  he  said 
first: 

"So  you  are  the  Superintendent  of  the  water  works, 
eh?" 

"Yes,  sir,  Mr.  Root." 

"And  you  give  satisfaction?" 

"Yes,  sir;  I've  given  perfect  satisfaction  for  seven 
years." 

"Humph,"  said  Root  mildly,  "you  look  like  a  man  who 
could  be  trusted  with  any  amount  of  water." 

I  have  known  Mr.  Root  for  many  years  and  like  every 
one  else  soon  grew  very  fond  of  him  for  he  has  all  those 
grand  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which  proclaim  him  a 
high-minded  gentleman  and  the  greatest  statesman  of  his 
time.  I  met  him  about  forty  years  ago  when  he  was  com- 
paratively unknown,  but  like  many  of  those  who  have 
watched  his  career,  and  gloried  in  his  success  (which  is  of 
the  highest  kind,  and  is  due  to  his  tact,  sterling  honesty 
and  unselfishness),  I  am  greatly  disappointed  because  he 
of  all  others  has  not  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Nation. 
His  great  charm  is  his  unusual  modesty,  in  combination 
with  an  intellectual  virility  and  unusual  loftiness  of 
purpose. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  worst  wills  are  those  made  by 
lawyers  themselves  and  the  eccentricities  of  great  lawyers 
would  fill  a  book.  The  author  of  A  Chance  Medley  says : 
"Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  will  was  that  of  the  great 
Sergeant  Maynard  in  the  reign  of  William  the  Third,  who 
is  said  to  have  left  it  purposely  worded  thus  obscurely,  so 
that  litigation  on  it  might  settle  several  hard  points  which 
had  puzzled  him  in  his  practice." 


309 


CHAPTER   XIX 

A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

I  Am  Engaged  as  an  Expert — The  Brush  Will  Case — The  Eddy 
Household — I  Interview  the  Priestess — Her  Knowledge  of  Busi- 
ness— "Malicious  Animal  Magnetism" — Mrs.  Eddy  as  a  Publisher 
— Her  Early  Life — The  Development  of  Christian  Science — 
Why  It  Flourishes — Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby  its  Alleged  In- 
ventor— The  Emmanuel  Movement — The  English  Commission. 

In  the  summer  of  1907  I  was  sent  for  by  General  Frank 
Streeter,  a  well-known  lawyer  of  Concord,  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  was  the  counsel  for  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy, 
the  head  of  the  Christian  Science  Church.  There  was 
some  mystery  about  the  errand  of  the  young  man — one  of 
the  lights  of  the  cult — ^who  came  to  me  but  who  would  not 
state  his  business.  It  was  only  when  I  met  General 
Streeter  in  Boston  that  I  learned  for  the  first  time  why 
he  wanted  me.  I  was  secretly  to  examine  Mrs.  Eddy 
as  to  her  sanity,  and  subsequently  to  testify  in  her  behalf 
if  I  could  do  so  conscientiously.  It  appeared  that  a  good- 
for-nothing  son,  after  trying  in  vain  to  get  more  money 
from  the  old  lady,  had,  with  the  help  of  friends,  brought 
proceedings  to  have  her  declared  an  incompetent,  and  to 
secure  a  guardian  for  her.  This  man,  then  over  sixty,  had 
always  been  a  source  of  great  trouble;  had  wheedled  his 
mother  out  of  large  sums  of  money  at  various  times,  and 
had  influenced  her  to  invest  in  wild-cat  mining  ventures. 
Upon  the  last  occasion  she  is  said  to  have  lost  $10,000. 
I  was  naturally  somewhat  surprised  to  find  that  I  should 

310 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MAKY  BAKER  EDDY 

be  wanted  in  this  case,  as  shortly  before  I  had  appeared 
in  the  Brush  will  contest  in  New  York,  testifying  for  the 
contestants  who  were  the  brothers  of  a  consumptive  woman 
who  had  left  all  her  fortune  to  Mrs.  Stetson,  the  head  of 
the  Christian  Science  Church  in  New  York.  Miss  Brush 
had  made  the  remarkable  statement  shortly  before  her 
death  that  if  "some  one  should  extract  every  drop  of  blood 
from  her  body  she  would  live  so  long  as  she  believed  in 
Christian  Science."  This  and  other  declarations  led  to  a 
discussion  of  what  were  really  insane  delusions,  and  what 
were  "sane";  and  Mr.  Rand,  the  proponent's  lawyer,  skil- 
fully sought  to  show  that  many  miracles  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  were  not  delusions,  a  proceeding  that 
evidently  found  favour  with  the  late  Surrogate  Fitzgerald, 
a  devout  Catholic,  who  sat  on  the  bench. 

When  I  met  General  Streeter  I  said,  "Perhaps  you 
do  not  know  that  I  appeared  recently  in  the  Brush  case 
and  attacked  Christian  Science?"  to  which  he  replied, 
"Yes,  we  know  all  that,  and  have  also  read  your  testimony 
from  beginning  to  end,  and  your  article  in  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  but  it  was  your  fairness  that  has  influenced 
us  in  retaining  you."  This  was  a  gratifying  statement 
of  a  critical  and  discriminating  man,  and  his  confidence 
upon  this  occasion  was  the  ground  for  a  deep  and  long- 
existing  friendship. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  very  day  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  served  with  papers  by  her  son,  she  had  had  prepared  a 
trust  deed  settling  upon  him  and  his  family  for  life  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the  envelope 
containing  the  deed  was  actually  stamped  and  ready  to 
mail. 

Glover,  the  plaintiff,  had  secured  the  services  of  Ex- 
Senator  Wm.  M.  Chandler,  a  man  of  great  persistence  and 
activity;  an  "expert"  who  had  never  seen  Mrs.  Eddy  had 

Sll 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

also  been  found  who  was  ready  to  swear  that  she  was  nou 
compos. 

Of  course  it  was  important  that  my  connection  with  the 
case  should  be  kept  a  secret  from  the  other  side;  so  I 
ai'rived  quietly,  and  became  an  inmate  of  the  beautiful 
house  of  General  and  Mrs.  Streeter,  working  all  day  in  a 
cool,  comfortable  library  which  overlooked  a  large  garden 
full  of  exquisite  flowers,  and  not  going  out  except  at  night. 
Several  of  us  then  took  the  big  automobile  and  went  to  dis- 
tant places  for  dinner  or  a  "breather,"  and  there  was 
present  a  queer  collection  of  lawyers  and  "Scientists." 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  speculation  about  this  much- 
talked-about  woman,  for  a  body  of  reporters  had  de- 
scended upon  Concord  and  only  saw  her  at  a  distance. 
One  or  two  of  the  most  sensational  papers  published 
stories  to  the  effect  that  she  was  really  dead,  and  that  a  wax 
dummy  had  been  brought  out  upon  the  balcony  in  front 
of  her  house  to  impress  the  credulous  onlookers.  "Even  if 
she  were  alive,"  said  they,  "she  is  insane."  Mr.  Chandler 
therefore  seemed  to  have  allies  enough  to  prove  his  case. 

The  time  at  length  arrived  when  I  was  to  interview  the 
celebrated  old  woman,  but  she  was  loath  to  submit  to  any- 
thing like  a  formal  examination.  I  had  therefore  to  be 
exceedingly  tactful,  and  a  few  minutes  after  my  intro- 
duction by  her  lawyer,  was  on  good  terms  with  her.  At 
no  time  did  she  appear  nervous  or  apprehensive.  The 
Commission  was  not  disposed  to  try  the  merits  of  Christian 
Science,  but  certain  allegations  had  been  made  to  the  effect 
that  through  it  she  had  developed  insane  delusions. 
Really,  had  such  delusions  existed,  they  would  have  had 
no  importance,  unless  they  interfered  with  her  knowledge 
of  her  property  and  its  management  as  well  as  the  ability 
to  take  care  of  herself.    One  of  the  alleged  insane  behefs 

312 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

was  that  she  believed  in  "Malicious  Animal  Magnetism," 
whatever  that  may  mean. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  house  was  a  small,  unpretentious  stone 
affair,  just  outside  of  Concord  and  on  the  road  to  St. 
Paul's  School.  Within,  the  domestic  arrangements  were 
complicated,  for  she  had  quite  an  entourage  of  men  and 
women.  The  Major  Domo,  who  was  the  male  head  of  the 
establishment,  was  a  man  named  Frye,  who  sat  on  the  box 
when  she  took  her  drive,  and  kept  away  importunate 
visitors.  He  was  an  effeminate,  and  somewhat  fat  man, 
and  seemed  to  have  a  great  deal  of  influence  with  his 
mistress.  He  was  therefore  the  object  of  much  hostility 
from  the  lawyer  of  the  plaintiff. 

Besides  him  there  were  in  the  household  many  women  of 
different  ages,  comprising  nurses,  secretaries  and  sub- 
healers. 

When  I  entered  her  house  I  was  ushered  very  formally 
into  her  parlour  which  was  furnished  in  odious  taste,  with 
onyx-topped  tables,  and  gilded  furniture.  In  one  part  of 
the  room  was  a  book  of  testimonials,  while  a  picture  of  the 
owner  was  before  me,  and  if  I  remember  rightly,  one  of 
Christ  as  well.  The  only  evidence  of  luxury  were  some 
fine  Persian  rugs  upon  the  walls  of  another  room. 

I  waited  a  long  time,  meanwhile  listening  to  the  taps 
of  a  bell  that  came  apparently  from  the  upper  room. 
These  I  afterward  learned  were  to  summon  the  various 
members  of  the  household,  and  each  person  had  his  par- 
ticular signal.  When  my  turn  came  I  was  taken  upstairs 
by  a  nice  young  girl  who  seemed  to  be  a  personal  maid. 

I  found  Mrs.  Eddy  seated  at  a  small  table  on  which 
were  a  vase  of  flowers  and  a  book  or  two.  She  was  an 
erect,  little  old  person,  dressed  in  black  silk ;  at  her  throat 
was  a  small  diamond  coronet  brooch,  the  only  jewelry  of 
any  kind.    Her  white  hair  was  worn  in  the  style  made 

313 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

familiar  by  her  pictures,  her  face  was  thin  as  was  her  body, 
and  she  appeared  to  be  shghtly  deaf;  but  when  I  spoke 
slowly  and  very  distinctly,  she  had  no  difficulty  in  hear- 
ing. She  wore  no  glasses  during  my  visit,  although  I 
understood  she  required  them  at  other  times  for  reading, 
I  was  immediately  impressed  with  the  extraordinary  in- 
telligence shown  in  her  eyes.  In  aged  persons  these  are 
likely  to  appear  dimmed,  and  lacking  in  expression;  with 
Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  they  were  dark,  and  at  times  almost 
luminous.  Our  conversation  covered  a  wide  range  of 
topics.  She  knew,  of  course,  the  nature  of  my  visit,  and 
very  amiably  answered  aU  my  questions  bearing  on  her 
religious  beliefs,  giving  me  a  sort  of  general  summary  of 
the  Christian  Science  faith.  It  was  a  kindly  talk  through- 
out, and  my  venerable  hostess  manifested  no  ill-feeling 
against  any  of  the  "next  friends"  (to  whom  she  jokingly 
alluded  as  "the  nexters")  who  were  attacking  her  in  the 
courts ;  although  she  appeared  to  be  hurt  that  her  grand- 
daughter who  was  associated  in  the  proceedings  against 
her,  was,  nevertheless,  a  member  of  the  Christian  Science 
Church.  She  had  an  unusual  familiarity  with  business 
affairs,  and  upon  being  asked  as  to  the  investment  of  such 
funds  as  might  come  into  her  possession,  said  that  she 
never  bought  stock  or  even  railroad  bonds,  but  watched 
the  affairs  of  prosperous  cities  and  purchased  local  bonds 
or  mortgages,  and  that  she  had  a  little  book  of  reference 
which  gave  her  the  desired  information. 

It  had  been  alleged  in  court  that  she  believed  in  what 
was  called  "Malicious  Animal  Magnetism"  and  that  this 
was  of  course  an  insane  delusion.  When  this  was  gone 
into  I  found  that  all  she  meant  was  that  when  a  person 
really  hated  or  even  disliked  another  it  was  possible,  by 
keeping  up  a  hostile  attitude,  to  do  some  harm  to  the 

314. 


A   LETTER   FROM    MRS.    MARY   BAKER    EDDY 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

victim,  either  passively  or  actively  by  word  or  deed;  so 
there  was  nothing  very  extraordinary  about  all  this. 

In  her  home  she  was  a  great  deal  of  a  disciplinarian,  and 
kept  a  close  watch  over  the  household  expenditures  and 
the  conduct  of  domestic  affairs.  She  arose  at  six,  attended 
to  the  familjT-  duties,  breakfasted,  dictated  to  a  stenog- 
rapher or  wrote  with  her  own  hand.  She  took  a  daily 
drive,  always  accompanied  by  the  man  Frye  or  one  of  her 
women  companions.  She  spent  large  sums  of  money  in 
the  town  of  Concord,  and  in  municipal  improvement,  and 
as  well  for  the  erection  of  a  Christian  Science  Church. 

It  need  not  be  stated  that  her  following  was  and  is 
enormous,  and  the  census  of  Christian  Scientists  indicates 
that  in  different  parts  of  the  world  there  are  over  one  and 
one-half  millions,  and  after  all  these  years  there  seems  to 
be  no  diminution  in  the  loyalty  of  the  adherents  to  the 
cause.  These  include,  strange  to  say,  men  of  learning — 
judges  and  professors,  and  in  England  more  than  one  per- 
son of  the  highest  social  position  and  intelligence.  When 
we  consider  the  very  indefinite  and  illogical  basis  of  the 
so-called  belief,  and  the  illiterate  and  commonplace  con- 
tents of  Science  and  Healthy  which  is  the  bible  of  the  cult, 
it  is  a  wonder  indeed  that  any  well-informed  or  critical 
person  should  be  found  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  Christian 
Scientists^ — not  that,  in  the  latter  years  of  her  life,  Mrs. 
Eddy  was  not  sincere  in  her  declarations,  and  consistent. 
Contrary  to  all  statements,  she  made  no  money  except' 
from  the  copyright  of  Science  and  Health,  which  I  believe 
sells  for  two  dollars  and  a  half.  As  there  are  frequent  edi- 
tions which  the  faithful  are  supposed  to  buy  on  their  ap- 
pearance, the  sales  and  profits  must  be  enormous. 

It  is  said  that  in  her  early  days  her  source  of  income 
was  greater;  that  she  charged  fees  of  from  $100  to  $300 

315 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

for  instruction,  and  upon  one  occasion  was  sued  by  a 
dissatisfied  "student." 

I  tried  to  keep  in  touch  with  Mrs.  Eddy  after  my  visit, 
and  asked  her  to  write  that  I  might  get  further  indica- 
tions from  time  to  time  as  to  her  mental  state.  She  wrote 
me  twice,  but  though  her  letters  were  rather  wordy  they 
showed  no  evidences  of  mental  disorder.  I  had  tried  to 
get  her  to  discuss  other  forms  of  religious  belief,  and  the 
efficacy  of  medicine.  She  could  not  be  drawn  into  any 
consideration  of  the  first — Buddhism  for  instance,  and 
she  roundly  abused  all  doctors:  as  at  one  time  she  had 
been  married  to  a  rather  quackish  homeopath,  I  did  not 
wonder.  Shortly  after  my  return  to  New  York  I  sent 
her  a  copy  of  Fielding  Hall's  beautiful  book  entitled 
The  Soul  of  a  People,  which  had  to  do  with  the  ethics  of 
Buddhism ;  but  she  evidently  could  not  or  would  not  com- 
ment upon  its  contents.    I  suspect  the  former. 

Shortly  after  my  visit  I  asked  Mrs.  Eddy  to  send  me  her 
photograph.    She  replied  as  f  oUows : 

"I  am  in  receipt  of  your  kind  letter  and  it  would  give  me  great 
pleasure  to  comply  with  your  request  that  I  sit  for  a  photograph, 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  latterly  I  have  failed  to  obtain  a 
satisfying  picture  of  myself,  and  have  so  given  up  the  effort. 
The  solution  of  this  failure  may  lie  in  this,  that  Christian  Science 
depicts  the  real  man  or  woman  spiritually  and  not  materially; 
hence  the  difficulty  for  me  to  obtain  a  photograph  of  that  which 
is  not  real.  You  honour  your  profession,  as  an  alienist,  and  meet 
marvellously  the  demands  of  that  comprehensive  title.  Under- 
standing as  you  do  human  nature,  you  may  see  the  consistency  of 
the  above  explanation  of  the  failure  to  depict  that  which  we  deny 
as  the  actual  and  eternal. 

"  'Consistency,  thou  art  a  jewel,'  is  a  popular  saying,  and 
our  time-honoured  Shakespeare  calls  experience  a  jewel." 

316 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

When  she  died,  she  left  her  large  fortune  to  the  church, 
an  act  which  was  in  line  with  her  ante-mortem  declaration. 

At  no  time  did  the  Christian  Scientists  go  so  far  as  to 
say  that  she  never  died,  as  has  been  alleged;  she  herself 
did  not  hold  any  such  ridiculous  belief,  but  in  speaking  of 
her  future  she  often  referred  to  spiritual  immortality.  It 
is  probable  that  the  views  of  some  of  her  followers  as  to 
the  indefinite  prolongation  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  earthly  life 
arose  from  the  visible  evidences  of  her  extraordinary  vital- 
ity, and  the  absence  of  the  usual  signs  of  mental  breakdown 
natural  in  one  of  her  great  age. 

Her  teachings  are  merely  a  culmination,  a  crystallisa- 
tion, of  similar  systems  that  have  been  cropping  up  during 
the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  under  the  leader- 
ship of  such  enthusiasts  as  Noyes,  Cullis  Simpson,  Board- 
man,  Quimby,  and  a  score  of  others,  who,  influenced  by  a 
certain  phase  of  idealistic  philosophy,  have  denied  the 
reality  of  matter  and  disease. 

Some  years  ago  a  writer  in  McClure's  Magazine  pub- 
lished what  seemed  to  be  a  very  circumstantial  account  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  busy  life,  and  the  development  of  Christian 
Science.  If  this  is  believed,  it  appears  that  she  had  always 
been  more  or  less  mixed  up  with  some  "ism"  or  other  for 
the  purpose  of  making  money,  but  without  much  success. 
Some  time  about  1862  she  had  a  fall  upon  the  ice  which 
probably  gave  rise  to  that  form  of  hysteria  and  neuras- 
thenia connected  with  so-called  spinal  concussion;  and  after 
trying  all  sorts  of  doctors  for  relief  which  she  did  not 
obtain,  she  sought  a  well-known  mental  healer  in  Maine 
known  as  Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby,  a  person  extraordi- 
nary in  his  cleverness  and  success  in  suggestion.  Quimby 
was  one  of  those  unstable  but  vigorous  products  frequent 
to  New  England,  and  had  originally  been  a  mesmerist. 
Probably,  though  an  ignorant  and  verbose  man,  he  pos- 

317 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

sessed  a  great  deal  of  what  is  known  as  "horse  sense,"  and 
the  ability  to  impress  susceptible  individuals  by  his  force- 
ful personality.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  a  suitable  subject.  After 
years  of  apparently  hopeless  invalidism,  she  suddenly  re- 
covered, her  ill-health  probably  being  due  to  a  trivial  cause. 
She  subsequently  became  a  pupil  of  Quimby,  and  obtained 
some  of  his  voluminous  writings,  which  it  is  said  were  of 
help  to  her  in  writing  her  famous  book;  but  after  she 
became  noted  and  prosperous,  she  repudiated  her  master, 
and  denied  that  his  teachings  had  anything  to  do  with  her 
religion.  It  cannot  be  gainsaid,  however,  that  he  invented 
the  terms  "Christian  Science,"  "absent  treatment,"  and 
others  that  are  universally  used  to-day  by  Mrs.  Eddy's 
church  and  her  followers. 

One  of  the  reasons  that  Christian  Science  flourishes  as 
it  does,  is  that  it  provides  what  may  be  called  a  comfort- 
able faith.  Its  practical  observance  is  founded  upon 
pleasant  social  intercourse,  and  all  the  sacrifices  and  re- 
nunciation incident  to  the  older  religions  are  avoided  in 
great  measure.  Charity  seems  to  be  conspicuous  by  its 
absence.  Medical  help,  except  in  serious  emergencies,  is 
scorned;  for  "there  is  no  such  thing  as  disease."  I  have 
neither  time  nor  inclination  to  recall  Mrs.  Eddy's  theories, 
which  so  far  as  bodily  illness  goes  are  refuted  every  day, 
but  healers  flourish  and  "absent  treatment"  is  given  freely 
for  a  compensation.  In  spite  of  the  positive  assertions  that 
there  is  no  life,  truth  or  substance  in  matter;  and  that 
"man  is  not  material,"  and  "if  a  man  will  but  realise  his 
spiritual  being,  sin,  sickness,  death  and  aU  other  'errors' 
of  mortal  mind  that  have  at  present  a  'claim  on  him 
will  disappear,' "  there  are  practical  "scientists"  who  are 
willing  to  admit  that  there  really  is  disease  which  may  be 
cured  by  material  means.  When  I  asked  an  intelligent 
official  of  the  church,  who  was  not  on  duty,  what  he  would 

318 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

really  do  if  he  broke  his  leg,  he  replied:  "I  would  send  for 
the  nearest  and  best  doctor  I  know." 

The  real  usefulness  of  this  sect  is  to  heal  by  suggestion 
as  has  been  done  in  all  ages.  At  every  European  and 
Oriental  shrine  is  a  collection  of  votive  offerings  made 
by  nervous  invalids  who  have  been  made  whole  by  psychic 
means.  These  things  are  mute  witnesses  of  the  power  of 
the  mind  over  the  body. 

Perhaps  some  day  the  world  generally  will  recognise  the 
fact  that  a  large  number  of  so-called  organic  and  appar- 
ently incurable  diseases  are  after  all  only  functional. 
Modern  psychiatry  has  made  this  very  clear,  if  it  was 
not  before,  and  the  study  of  the  strange  results  of  mental 
concentration  upon  some  organ  of  the  body,  as  well  as 
obsessions  and  wishes,  is  clearing  away  the  fog  of  igno- 
rance. It  has  been  found  that  many  curious  mental  states 
are  simply  due  to  an  unconscious  and  secret  wish  or  fear, 
unrecognised  as  such  by  the  individual;  and  that  he  may 
be  psychically  deaf,  dumb  or  blind  or  incapable  in  various 
ways.  It  was  what  was  known  in  the  old  days  as  expectant 
attention.  Dr.  Ames  relates  a  case  of  a  man  who  "wished 
that  he  need  never  have  to  see  a  certain  person."  So 
strong  was  the  inhibiting  impression  that  he  actually  be- 
came blind,  and  for  a  long  time  this  affliction  was  thought 
to  be  due  to  ordinary  causes.  The  case  was  not  hopeless, 
and  when  diagnosed  it  was  easily  cured. 

It  is  here  that  Christian  Science  does  good,  and  other 
psychiatrists  as  well  as  myself  have  sent  patients  to  the 
healers  for  the  powerful  appeal  that  is  made  to  their  sub- 
conscious selves. 

Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby  was  really  the  person  who 
anticipated  the  newer  faith,  and  abandoned  mesmerism  for 
something  very  different  and  much  more  effective — that  is 
to  say  what  is  to-day  known  as  psycho-analysis;  and  it  is 

319 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

probable  that  he  was  the  first  to  apply  the  methods  of 
Jung,  Dubois,  Freud  and  others,  in  a  rudimentary  but 
highly  successful  manner.  Were  it  not  for  the  mass  of 
inexact  statement,  pseudo-science,  and  detached  applica- 
tion of  the  scriptures,  his  original  Science  of  Healing 
would  have  been  worthy  of  more  respectful  mention. 

The  antagonism  to  this  movement,  except  from  mem- 
bers of  my  own  profession,  has  not  been  very  great.  Of 
course  the  orthodox  churches  deplore  the  desertion  from 
their  ranks,  and  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  establish  an 
opposition  movement  on  the  same  lines — in  particular  by 
the  Reverend  Dean  Worcester  of  the  Emmanuel  Church 
in  Boston,  and  the  Reverend  Samuel  McComb  of  St. 
Mark's  Church  in  New  York. 

The  plan  of  these  gentlemen  was  to  get  the  co-operation 
of  medical  men  who  were  to  send  them  suitable  cases  for 
mental  treatment,  but  very  soon  they  copied  the  most 
radical  Christian  Science  methods,  and  made  many  inju- 
dicious claims  that  were  preposterous  so  far  as  the  cure  of 
hopeless  nervous  and  mental  disease  was  concerned.  No 
impartial  collection  of  men  in  the  United  States,  so  far 
as  I  know,  has  seriously  investigated  the  operations  of 
Christian  Science  and  the  ways  of  its  healers;  but  there 
has  always  been  ridicule  showered  upon  it  by  the  medical 
profession,  which  is  sometimes  undeserved. 

The  excellent  plan,  so  much  in  favour  in  England,  of 
investigating  matters  of  public  interest  by  competent  com- 
mittees, was  recently  illustrated  by  the  report  of  those  who 
have  gone  into  the  question  of  spiritual  or  mental  healing 
with  reference  to  disease;  and  it  is  time  that  the  exact 
status  of  those  who  treat  by  suggestion  should  be  settled — 
the  Christian  Scientists,  Emmanuel  Healers,  Faith  Cur- 
ists,  et  genus  omnes.  The  committee  which  was  formed 
as  the  result  of  a  conference  of  the  clerical  and  medical 

320 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

professions  at  the  Chapter  House,  St.  Paul's,  London,  in 
October,  1910  and  1911,  consisted  of  such  eminent  per- 
sons as  the  Dean  of  Westminster,  Sir  Dyce  Duckworth, 
Canon  Childe,  the  Deans  of  Durham  and  St.  Paul's,  the 
Bishop  of  Stepney,  Drs.  Omerod,  Sir  Douglass  Powell, 
and  Clifford  Albutt.  This  body  had  nineteen  sittings  and 
called  before  it  a  number  of  practitioners  and  exponents 
of  faith  curing,  among  them  a  clergyman  named  Fitz- 
gerald who  heads  the  "Community  of  the  Resurrection"  at 
Mirfield  where  disease  is  cured  by  spiritual  agency.  Dr. 
Samuel  McComb,  who  is  well  known  in  America  as  the 
assistant  of  Dr.  Worcester  in  the  Emmanuel  movement, 
the  Right  Honourable  the  Earl  of  Sandwich,  who  is  an 
active  Christian  Scientist  in  England,  Dr.  Milne  Bram- 
well  and  Lloyd  Tuckery,  as  well  as  Dr.  Wright,  the  author 
of  a  well-known  book  upon  suggestion. 

These  persons  either  appeared  before,  or  were  cross- 
examined  by  the  Committee,  or  had  the  following  list  of 
questions  submitted  to  them: 

1st.  What  do  you  understand  by  spiritual  healing? 

2nd.  Do  you  make  any  distinction  between  spiritual 
and  mental  healing? 

3rd.  Do  you  connect  the  spiritual  healing  of  the  pres- 
ent day  with  the  gifts  of  healing  in  the  Apostolic  Church? 

4th.  Do  you  regard  moral  excellence  in  either  the  healer 
or  the  healed  as  an  essential  condition  for  spiritual 
healing? 

5th.  Do  you  consider  the  religious  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  sick  person  is  essential  to  healing  by  spiritual  means? 

6th.  Have  you  personal  knowledge  of  any  cases  where 
any  organic  disease  has  been  healed  by  spiritual  or  mental 
influence  alone? 

7th.  Do  you  consider  that  spiritual  healing  should  be 

321 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

exercised  apart  from  both  medical  diagnosis  and  super- 


vision 


Of  course,  as  might  be  expected,  there  was  much  dif- 
ference of  opinion  as  the  result  of  personal  prejudice  and 
finely  spun  theories  of  what  constituted  "spiritual" — the 
clergymen  taking  one  view  and  the  doctors  another;  yet 
the  conclusions  as  a  whole  were  quite  in  accord,  and  very 
satisfactory.  "While  the  committee  fully  recognised  the 
operation  of  will  and  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  they  reverently 
believe,  however,  that  the  divine  power  is  exercised  in  con- 
formity with,  and  through  the  operation  of,  natural  laws." 

They  very  sensibly  decided  that  "faith"  or  spiritual 
healing  does  not  differ  from  that  dependent  upon  sugges- 
tion, but  that  religious  suggestion  is  more  potent  than 
any  other  kind. 

In  spite  of  the  positive  and  extravagant  claims  of  the 
Earl  of  Sandwich  and  others,  they  are  of  the  opinion  that 
suggestion  is  only  available  in  functional  disorders,  and 
that  organic  diseases  are  beyond  its  reach  so  far  as  a  cure 
is  to  be  expected.  The  "noble  Lord"  who  is  so  prominent 
in  the  church  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  England  claimed  to  have 
cured  cancer,  blindness,  mania,  neuritis,  etc.;  but  none  of 
the  others  were  confident  of  their  ability  to  cure  structural 
and  organic  maladies,  nor  could  they  present  any  satis- 
factory evidences.  Among  the  doctors,  the  most  that  any 
one  would  say  was  that  suggestion  relieved  pain  or  in- 
somnia in  organic  cases. 

It  was  a  surprise  to  find  that  Dr.  McComb  had  receded 
from  the  position  taken  by  himself  and  Dr.  Worcester, 
who  some  years  ago  in  an  article  in  the  Ladies'  Home 
Journal  claimed  to  have  cured  diseases  ordinarily  regarded 
as  organic  and  even  hopeless  by  physicians. 

The  Committee  deserves  great  credit  for  its  investiga- 
tion of  cases  in  which  extraordinary  cures  were  claimed — 

322 


A  VISIT  TO  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

for  instance  in  a  case  where  "secondary  hemorrhage"  after 
excision  of  the  tonsils  had  suddenly  ceased  after  the  person 
had  received  "Holy  Unction."  It  was  shown  that  the 
natural  cessation  of  the  bleeding  from  fainting  had  allowed 
the  blood  to  coagulate  and  form  a  clot. 

A  malignant  tumor  of  the  thyroid  gland  was  reduced  by 
radium  rather  than  by  spiritual  healing.  (In  this  con- 
nection it  may  be  said  that  recently  it  has  been  found  pos- 
sible to  reduce  goitres  by  hypnotism. ) 

Cases  of  so-called  "neuritis"  and  blindness  were  hys- 
terical, and  suddenly  cured  by  strong  mental  influence. 

One  hysterical  woman  inflicted  "cat-bites"  upon  herself 
by  rubbing  her  skin  with  her  wet  finger,  and  had  hysterical 
loss  of  sensation  in  the  throat,  and  she  was  cured  after 
her  ailment  was  reported  as  "a  very  rare  and  incurable 
disease,  with  partial  insanity." 

Some  cases  which  it  was  claimed  were  "cured,"  died 
miserable  deaths  subsequently  from  cancer  or  other  in- 
curable diseases. 

In  spite  of  the  element  of  false  claims  and  humbugging, 
there  was  enough  well-attested  evidence  to  show  that 
"spiritual"  or  mental  healing  was  useful,  if  not  entirely 
and  invariably  successful  in  alcoholism,  sexual  perversion, 
obsessions  of  various  kinds,  writer's  and  piano  cramp,  and 
yarious  disorders  of  function. 

While  it  was  universally  held  that  the  moral  character 
of  the  healer  made  no  real  difference  in  the  matter  of  sug- 
gestion, it  was  naturally  decided  that  a  good  man  who 
used  religious  methods  was  preferable  to  a  possibly  dis- 
honest healer,  and  all  agreed  that  such  treatment  should 
never  be  utilised  unless  the  approval  of  a  physician  was 
obtained. 

Although  the  recommendations  of  this  body  were  most 
valuable  in  discountenancing  quackery,  it  is  to  be  re- 

323 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

gretted  that  more  was  not  said  about  the  neurotic  insta- 
bility of  many  people  who  seek  this  kind  of  help,  and  that 
modern  psycho-therapy  was  not  gone  into.  The  report, 
however,  is  a  distinct  step  forward;  and  if  we  are,  as 
promised,  furnished  with  additional  facts  and  suggestions, 
many  dangers  will  be  averted,  and  much  deception 
obviated. 


324 


CHAPTER   XX 

SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

The  Oldest  Case  of  Simulation — "Clegg  the  Dummy  Chucker" — 
Betrayal  by  Handwriting — Cadet  Whittaker — Simulation  of  In- 
sanity by  Criminals — A  School  for  Fakirs — "Happy  Jim"  Mul- 
reany — "Psychic  Epilepsy" — Tobin,  the  Murderer — Cooking  Up 
a  Defence — Alphonse  Stephani — Simulation  of  Another  Kind  of 
Insanity  by  One  Already  Insane — The  Robin  Case — Maria  Bar- 
bieri — An  Entangled  Expert — The  Truck  Case — Reporters  as 
Amateur  Lunatics — I  Am  Committed  to  Ludlow  Street  Jail — 
The  Terranova  Case — The  Detection  of  Simulation. 

Simulation  of  disease  is  no  new  thing,  for  is  it  not  related 
that  David  imposed  on  the  King  of  Gath  by  "scrabbHng 
on  the  doors  of  the  gate  and  letting  his  spittle  fall  upon 
his  beard"?  It  is  even  said  that  Solon  the  Wise,  feigning 
madness,  wrote  and  recited  a  poem  in  the  market  place  in 
order  to  spur  the  Athenians  on  to  recover  the  island  of 
Salamis.  According  to  Hendrie  Lloyd  this  was  the  first 
instance  of  a  lawyer  instead  of  a  client  feigning  insanity. 
Latter-day  cases  of  the  simulation  of  many  forms  of  bodily 
disease,  as  well  as  insanity,  are  familiar  enough  to  alien- 
ists, criminologists,  prison  physicians,  and  army  surgeons. 
One  which  was  picturesque  and  amusing  was  that  of 
"Clegg  the  Dummy  Chucker,"  about  whom  I  was  con- 
sulted many  years  ago,  and  which  was  described  by  Dr. 
Carlos  F.  McDonald,  who  first  exposed  Clegg's  imposture. 
This  rogue  was  an  English  pickpocket,  who,  after  a  rob- 
bery of  four  hundred  pounds,  came  to  this  country  and 

325 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

affiliated  himself  with  a  "swell  mob"  who  travelled  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  and  were  very  active  at  the 
time  the  Marquis  of  Lome  visited  Boston.  It  was  Clegg's 
pleasant  custom  to  "throw  a  fit"  in  a  crowded  place — either 
a  ferryboat,  a  busy  department  store,  or  in  the  street;  and 
as  he  was  always  well  dressed,  he  was  immediately  sur- 
rounded by  a  sympathetic  group  of  on-lookers — chiefly 
women.  At  this  stage  Clegg's  pals  would  deftly  pick  the 
pockets  of  the  crowd,  and  upon  one  occasion  the  rascal 
himself  relieved  a  sympathetic  doctor  of  his  watch.  So 
well  did  he  feign  epilepsy  that  even  when  detected  and 
arrested  he  deceived  many  doctors,  among  them  one  of  the 
staff  of  the  Hospital  for  Epileptics.  Subsequently  he 
was  sent  to  Auburn  and  there  examined  by  Dr.  McDon- 
ald. He  had,  to  impress  his  jailors,  thrown  himself  from 
a  platform  to  the  hard  stone  floor  of  the  prison  several 
feet  below.  His  patient  watchers,  however,  found  many 
suspicious  things,  viz.,  that  he  rarely  had  fits  when  under 
observation ;  that  his  thumbs  were  not  pressed  beneath  his 
clenched  fingers;  his  nails  were  not  livid;  and  his  sleep 
after  recovery,  which  is  the  rule,  was  not  real.  He  was 
ultimately  threatened  with  punishment  and  confined. 
Meanwhile,  in  one  of  his  pseudo-attacks  the  doctor  stated 
in  his  presence  that  there  was  a  certain  symptom  lacking 
in  his  attacks  which  "resembled"  true  epilepsy,  and  hinted 
at  its  nature.  The  prisoner  subsequently  said,  "This  sug- 
gestion staggered  me,  for  I  had  not  only  seen  a  great 
many  epileptic  fits  but  had  also  studied  the  subject 
thoroughly,  and  have  practised  these  things  for  fifteen 
years  until  I  thought  I  knew  every  symptom  of  it."  He 
later  broke  down  and  demonstrated  the  deceit  and  his 
methods,  even  borrowing  a  penknife  with  which  to  wound 
his  tongue  so  that  bloody  froth  might  be  produced. 
When  last  heard  of  he  was  engaged  at  his  old  tricks, 

326 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

escaping  detection  and  getting  sympathy  while  his  com- 
panions gathered  the  spoils. 

Sometimes  an  impostor  will  be  convicted  by  his  own 
letters,  or  by  communications  he  intends  should  divert  the 
attention  of  the  authorities  to  some  other  unsuspected 
person.  Waltz,  after  murdering  a  knife  grinder  near  Cats- 
kill,  pinned  a  document  in  his  own  handwriting  to  a  tele- 
graph pole  on  the  road  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  real  murderers  were  highwaymen  who  had  since  left 
for  new  localities. 

Cadet  Whittaker,  one  of  the  few  coloured  cadets  who 
were  appointed  to  West  Point,  made  himself  so  unpopu- 
lar, and  manifested  so  much  incapacity  in  doing  his  work, 
that  even  he  felt  that  his  days  as  a  cadet  were  numbered. 
In  April,  1880,  he  was  found  in  his  room  in  a  suspicious 
trance,  loosely  bound  with  a  piece  of  belting.  His  body 
bore  no  marks  of  injury  other  than  a  very  small  cut  which 
was  apparent  upon  the  lobe  of  one  ear.  When  found  he 
declared  he  had  been  attacked  by  persons  unknown  to 
him,  possibly  his  classmates,  and  grievously  injured. 
Not  until  this  time  did  he  show  a  letter  which  he  claimed 
had  been  written  some  time  before.  It  was  dated  Sunday, 
April  4th,  1880,  and  read;  "Mr.  Whittaker,  you  will  be 
fixed.    Better  keep  awake.     A  friend." 

Appearances  were  so  suspicious  that  a  thorough  inves- 
tigation was  made,  handwriting  experts  being  called  in 
first.  I  was  subsequently  retained  by  Major  Asa  Bird 
Gardiner,  the  Judge  Advocate  who  appeared  at  the 
court-martial.  Two  hundred  and  forty  seven  letters  of 
the  entire  cadet  corps  were  examined  by  experts  Hagan 
and  Ames  and  numbered  in  such  a  way  that  prejudice  of 
any  kind  was  impossible.  The  letter  of  warning  was  evi- 
dently written  by  Whittaker  himself,  and  there  was  little 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  "mutilation"  and  tying  were 

327 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

done  by  the  same  person.  The  trance  was  feigned,  and 
although  there  was  much  misplaced  sympathy  on  the  part 
of  foolish  persons  and  newspapers  he  was  convicted  and 
discharged.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  said  that  the 
appointment  of  coloured  cadets  to  West  Point  has  not 
been  a  success.  So  far  as  I  can  learn  but  one  good  negro 
line  officer  remains  in  the  service.  He  is  respected  by 
his  white  brother  officers  as  a  brave,  capable  and  modest 
man. 

The  popular  idea  that  insanity  may  be  successfully  and 
easily  simulated  by  an  ordinary  person  is  fortunately 
erroneous;  not  only  is  it  absolutely  impossible  for  any 
one  to  play  a  part  of  this  kind  that  will  deceive  the  trained 
observer  for  any  great  length  of  time,  but  strange  as 
it  may  seem,  the  feigners  who  most  frequently  engage 
our  attention  are  the  insane  themselves  who  portray  the 
symptoms  of  another  kind  of  mental  disorder  than  that 
which  really  exists.  Sometimes  their  motive  is  to  escape 
punishment,  sometimes  to  gain  greater  privileges  in 
asylums. 

My  own  experience  goes  to  show  that  when  the  defence 
of  insanity  is  utilised  by  a  criminal,  it  is  more  often  than 
not  the  result  of  a  suggestion  made  by  the  friends  of  the 
prisoner  or  by  his  lawyer;  sometimes  it  may  be  the  work 
of  a  curious  and  hidden  system  which  is  fostered  by  that 
kind  of  criminal  communion  that  secretly  flourishes  in 
many  prisons.  It  is  well  known  by  medical  officers  and 
attaches  of  reformatories  and  penal  institutions  that  an 
inmate  more  intelligent  than  the  rest  is  quite  apt  to  con- 
coct a  plan  enabling  a  popular  fellow  prisoner  to  escape 
work  or  evade  punishment.  Sometimes  the  subject  will 
even  go  so  far  as  to  mutilate  himself,  or  he  feigns  some 
disease.  An  actor  named  Harry  Rose  some  years  ago  in 
New  York  killed  his  wife  in  a  fit  of  jealous  rage.    After 

328 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

his  arrest  he  promptly  indulged  in  a  farrago  of  ridiculous 
nonsense  which  is  said  to  have  convinced  his  eminent  coun- 
sel, Mr.  Abe  Hummel,  that  he  was  "raving  mad."  This 
consisted  in  offering  Hummel  "millions,"  and  of  taking 
the  diminutive  lawyer  into  a  dark  corner  of  his  cell  and 
impressively  telling  him  that  he  would  make  him  "rich 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice";  he  also  did  many  other 
silly  things.  A  commission  subsequently  disregarded  all 
this,  as  well  as  the  sickly  sentimental  articles  in  some  of 
the  newspapers,  and  Rose  was  sent  to  Sing  Sing — despite 
the  objection  of  Assistant  District  Attorney  Clarke,  who 
very  properly  thought  him  a  subject  for  electrocution. 
While  in  the  Tombs,  and  subsequently  in  State's  Prison, 
Rose  practically  established  a  school  for  the  training  of 
simulators,  and  ever  since  the  defence  of  insanity  has  been 
more  popular  than  it  ever  was  before.  My  experience 
with  these  cases  has  enabled  me  to  detect  the  rules  for 
"fooling  the  doctors"  which  from  that  time  have  been 
handed  down  from  Rose. 

In  1911  a  barkeeper  was  killed  on  Eleventh  Avenue  by 
a  burglar  and  thug  named  Mulreany,  alias  "Happy  Jim"; 
while  Jack  Dowling,  a  miserable  drunkard,  who  was  his 
dupe  and  accomplice  at  the  same  time,  attempted  to  rob 
the  till.  Both  were  subsequently  arrested,  and  both  made 
the  same  full  and  well-corroborated  confession.  In  the 
police  court  Mulreany  at  once  began  to  put  in  play  the 
teachings  of  Rose,  and  his  bewildered  counsel  was  about 
to  apply  for  a  commission  in  lunacy  when  the  prisoner 
concluded  that  he  had  a  better  defence  in  an  alibi  and 
quickly  recovered  his  voluntarily  scattered  senses.  He 
tried  to  repudiate  his  confession,  as  did  his  terrified  ac- 
complice, who  was  made  to  reverse  himself  by  mysterious 
threats  conveyed  by  the  gang  in  the  very  prison  itself. 

329 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

He  then  "went  crazy"  and  I  was  appointed  a  Commis- 
sioner with  two  others  to  examine  him. 

The  prisoner,  who  really  had  suffered  from  fright  and 
confinement,  was  a  pitiable  object — pale  and  unkempt, 
with  long,  neglected  hair  and  beard,  and  inexperienced 
observers  would  have  thought  him  really  insane.  I  was, 
however,  immediately  impressed  by  his  evasion,  and  the 
shifty  way  in  which  he  avoided  our  glances  and  questions. 
The  Rose  symptoms  were  in  evidence,  and  he  spoke  of 
the  constant  imaginary  voices  telling  him  to  do  the  most 
revolting  and  improbable  things,  and  threatening  him 
with  picturesque  torture ;  yet  never  once  did  he  betray  by 
conduct,  expression  or  attitude  any  evidence  that  he  be- 
lieved or  even  heard  the  "voices"  which  he  described.  His 
story  was  that  of  a  lunatic  who  then  might  be  in  a  state 
of  confusional  insanity,  yet  no  confusion  existed,  and  on 
most  subjects  he  talked  clearly  and  gave  responsive  re- 
plies; but  just  so  soon  as  the  fictitious  picture  was  sug- 
gested, off  he  went,  pausing  from  time  to  time  to  invent 
new  horrors.  He  was  finally  trapped,  and  accepted  fifty 
cents  to  have  his  hair  and  beard  cut,  turning  up  at  the 
next  meeting  quite  another  man  and  admitting  later  that 
"he  had  made  a  mistake."  His  pitiable  condition  and  ap- 
parent dominance  by  the  other  man  enlisted  our  sympathy 
and  we  recommended  clemency.  He  was  sent  to  Bellevue 
and  subsequently  died  of  tuberculosis. 

I  can  remember,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  the  efforts  of  an 
ignorant  and  disreputable  member  of  my  own  profession 
who  at  one  time  made  an  enormous  amount  of  money  by 
furthering  such  schemes,  inventing  new  and  fictitious 
defences  of  insanity  which  he  trained  the  guilty  defendant 
to  carry  out. 

Among  these  was  "psychic  epilepsy,"  which  for  a  time 
became  a  popular  excuse  for  crime,  and  served  more  than 

330 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

once  the  purpose  of  some  unscrupulous  attorney.  This 
man  had  spent  a  few  weeks  or  months  as  a  student  at  the 
Salpetriere  in  Paris,  and  as  an  externe  at  a  London  hos- 
pital, and  was  dangerous  because  of  his  superficial  knowl- 
edge, consummate  effrontery,  and  ability  to  picture  half- 
truths  and  apply  them  to  the  particular  case.  When 
Lombroso  first  called  attention  to  the  so-called  stigmata 

of  degeneration,  Dr. ,  who  often  appeared  for  the 

defence,  found  an  extraordinary  number  of  misshapen 
heads,  deformed  fingers,  vaulted  palates  and  other  marks 
of  decadence  to  reinforce  a  plea  of  insanity.  A  plumber 
who  had  shot  the  seducer  of  his  sister  and  was  tried  and 
acquitted,  was  found  by  this  "expert"  to  have  an  unusual 
number  of  these  blemishes,  none  of  which  really  existed. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  scientific  men  nowadays  pay 
little  attention  to  the  more  extravagant  claims  of  the  late 
Cesare  Lombroso,  the  sensational  Italian  criminologist. 

There  seems  to  be  an  idea  among  the  laity  that  if  a 
person  who  wishes  to  be  considered  deranged  will  neglect 
his  person  or  allow  his  hair  and  beard  to  grow  to  an 
enormous  length,  it  will  go  far  toward  establishing  the 
belief  that  he  is  unbalanced.  Such  a  change  will  often  im- 
press the  average  juryman,  but  not  any  one  who  knows 
anything  about  psychiatry.  While  doubtless  the  ordinary 
man  will  be  influenced  by  such  extreme  personal  untidi- 
ness and  neglect,  its  voluntary  cultivation  does  not  always 
succeed,  and  the  pseudo-lunatic  is  quite  apt  to  be  scrupu- 
lously careful  about  some  one  point — as  his  finger  nails 
or  the  tie  of  his  cravat — while  the  really  insane  person 
becomes  slovenly  only  as  the  result  of  his  absorption  or 
indifference,  and  is  consistently  filthy.  Tobin,  the  mur- 
derer, who  cltmisily  feigned  acute  mania,  allowed  his  hair 
to  grow  to  extraordinary  length  and  after  his  conviction 
roared  like  a  bull  in  the  court  room  until  he  was  carried 

331 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

out  by  four  officers.  Later,  when  he  saw  it  would  do  no 
good  to  pretend,  he  speedily  abandoned  his  theatrical 
play  and  pinned  his  faith  upon  an  appeal.  Sometimes,  as 
I  have  said,  a  lawyer  will  concoct  a  plan  of  action  and 
again  an  unscrupulous  political  doctor  will  be  his  ally. 

I  knew  one  of  these  who  retained  me  in  two  cases — and 
he  probably  will  not  again.  In  one  of  them  the  indicted 
man  had  been  found  guilty  of  a  horrible  lust-murder. 
When  he  was  examined  by  myself  and  others,  he  presented 
the  symptoms  of  a  well-developed,  systematised  paranoia, 
and  his  whole  previous  life  had  been  psychopathic.  Evi- 
dently his  counsel  did  not  recognise  the  existence  of  the 
real  insanity  at  all — which  would  have  been  enough  as  it 
turned  out  to  have  saved  his  client's  neck — but  he 
promptly  proceeded  to  coach  the  man  as  to  how  he  should 
portray  a  new  and  dramatic  disorder,  and  among  other 
things  the  services  of  the  prison's  barber  were  again  dis- 
pensed with.  To  add  to  the  complications,  alleged  "in- 
sane documents,"  evidently  prepared  by  the  ingenious 
lawyer,  found  their  way  into  our  hands,  but  there  was 
no  difficulty  in  detecting  the  imposition  because  of  their 
improbability  and  absurdity.  Finally,  after  an  indignant 
protest  by  all  of  us,  the  work  of  the  amateur  legal  alienist 
was  abandoned,  and  the  defendant  was  tried  for  his 
crime,  which  was  the  result  of  existing  sexual  degener- 
acy and  the  influence  of  alcohol  upon  a  person  who  was 
a  paranoiac.  This  is  an  uncommon  but  by  no  means  im- 
possible condition  of  affairs.  Another  similar  and  no- 
torious New  York  case  which  has  been  much  in  the 
courts,  is  familiar  to  most  people,  although  in  the  latter 
example  no  attempt  at  deception  existed. 

The  most  difficult  problem  is  the  recognition  of  feign- 
ing when  the  impostor  is  really  insane.  Many  absolutely 
irresponsible  persons  have  sufficient  intelligence  to  know 

332 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  and  to  realise 
that  they  may  be  punished,  although  suffering  from  a 
delusion  of  persecution  that  is  adequate  to  exculpate 
them.  One  of  the  earliest  cases  of  this  kind  in  which  I 
appeared  was  that  of  Alphonse  Stephani,  who  killed  the 
family  lawyer,  ex-Judge  Keynolds,  in  a  cruel  and  insane 
manner  after  a  discussion  over  a  business  transaction. 
Stephani  shammed  insanity,  became  silent,  and  gave  silly 
as  well  as  contradictory  answers.  He  too  suddenly  grew 
indifferent  to  appearances,  cultivated  a  leonine  mane  of 
shaggy  hair,  and  performed  a  number  of  ridiculous  things 
such  as  gyrating  about  the  room  and  wiggling  his  fingers, 
the  artificial  nature  of  which  was  even  apparent  to  the 
guards.  It  appears  that  he  had  really  suffered,  however, 
for  years  from  delusions  with  a  classical  train  of  symp- 
toms, such  as  insane  false  ideas  of  suspicion  and  persecu- 
tion, and  of  poisoning;  had  attempted  suicide,  upon  one 
occasion  assaulted  his  own  mother,  and  acted  queerly  for 
a  long  time  before  the  murder.  He,  like  Czolgosz,  cooked 
his  own  food,  and  would  not  eat  that  prepared  for  him 
by  others.  In  addition  to  his  paranoia  he  suffered  from 
epilepsy.  Stephani  was  tried,  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
state's  prison  for  life,  despite  my  evidence.  In  a  year  his 
insanity  became  so  evident  to  every  one  that  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Dannemora.  This  was  in  1890,  and  he  is  there 
to-day.  He  has,  despite  his  psychosis,  extraordinary  busi- 
ness ability,  and  has  increased  his  inheritance  to  a  great 
extent,  although  he  has  the  same  delusions  of  persecution 
he  has  manifested  for  so  many  years. 

A  recent  case  which  has  led  to  much  unjust  abuse  of 
experts  is  that  of  Joseph  G.  Robin,  the  notorious  Russian- 
Jew,  who  lately  pleaded  guilty  to  an  indictment  of  grand 
larceny.  The  amusing  part  of  the  matter  is,  as  I  have 
said  in  previous  mention  of  the  case,  that  no  less  than 

333 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

thirteen  alienists  agreed  that  he  was  insane  and  unable  to 
instruct  counsel.  There  was  no  material  difference  of 
opinion.  The  jury,  recruited  in  large  part  from  his  own 
race  and  of  a  kind  nowadays  quite  familiar  to  most  judges 
and  lawyers,  quickly  cast  discredit  and  opprobrium  upon 
the  medical  gentlemen,  who  included  not  only  some  of  the 
most  learned  men  in  New  York  but  of  the  country,  and 
the  crowing  of  a  certain  part  of  the  daily  press,  which  of 
late  has  been  responsible  for  the  moulding  of  public  opin- 
ion, threshed  itself  into  a  mad  fury  of  scornful  criticism 
and  abuse.  I  was  called  to  see  Robin  by  Mr.  Whitman, 
then  District  Attorney,  who  was  very  anxious  that  the 
man  should  be  convicted  for  the  purpose  of  using  his  evi- 
dence to  indict  those  "higher  up,"  and  I  examined  him 
many  times,  interrogated  his  parents,  whom  he  disowned; 
his  friends,  past  and  present,  his  doctors  and  associates; 
and  while  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  a  very 
clever  and  entirely  responsible  swindler  of  a  mean  order, 
possessing  great  cunning  and  brilliancy,  the  conviction 
was  forced  upon  me  that  he  was  at  the  time  a  man  of  un- 
sound mind.  This  was  not  because  (with  the  evident  help 
of  some  friends  having  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  psy- 
chiatry) he  had  concocted  a  picture  of  delusional  insanity, 
declaring  that  Mr.  Pierpont  Morgan  had  threatened  him 
with  physical  violence,  even  ordering  that  empty  milk  bot- 
tles should  be  dropped  on  his  head  in  the  city  prison;  nor 
because  he  wrote  ingenious  letters,  pretended  to  swoon 
away  when  we  examined  him,  and  acted  generally  in  a 
manner  quite  foreign  to  any  lunatic  I  ever  saw;  but  be- 
cause he  really  professed  delusions  of  grandeur  which  are, 
I  believe,  exhibited  by  him  to-day.  He  undoubtedly  en- 
tertained absolutely  erroneous  and  insane  beliefs  regard- 
ing his  origin,  and  disowned  and  contemptuously  up- 
braided his   real   father   and   mother.      The   two   heart- 

334. 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

broken  old  people,  however,  especially  the  father,  so 
closely  resembled  the  son  that  there  could  be  no  doubt 
that  the  marked  physical  characteristics  occurring  in  both 
were  not  a  mere  coincidence.  That  his  extreme  emotional 
disorder  at  the  time  of  his  arrest  and  afterward  was  due 
to  the  strain,  and  the  coincident  effect  of  a  poisonous  dose 
of  hyoscine  he  had  taken,  was  also  apparent. 

In  1881  Maria  Barbieri  was  tried  for  the  murder  of 
her  paramour  and  convicted  by  a  hard-hearted  jury  who 
regarded  the  brutal  killing  as  one  calling  for  a  first  degree 
verdict.  It  was  found  possible  to  upset  this  on  appeal, 
and  a  second  trial  was  ordered.  In  the  meantime  an 
American  woman  of  philanthropic  inclination,  who  had 
married  an  Itahan  nobleman,  became  interested  in  the 
prisoner  and  secured  for  her  a  bright,  energetic  young 
Jewish  attorney.  The  defence  now  was  to  be  insanity,  or 
rather  "psychic  epilepsy,"  and  Maria  was  to  present  that 
form  of  loss  of  memory  or  epileptic  amnesia  which  had 
for  a  time  been  a  fashionable  defence.  This  called  for  a 
carefuUy  prepared  arrangement  of  the  pawns  on  the 
board.  Hereditary  insanity  was  to  be  established,  and  as 
most  of  her  family  lived  in  the  Italian  provinces  south 
of  Naples,  the  field  was  to  be  visited  and  a  hunt  made 
for  defectives.  I  am  told  that  some  one  went  from  town 
to  town  asking  for  information  regarding  apocryphal 
invalids  and  sowing  the  seeds  of  suggestion.  A  month  or 
two  later  a  second  seeker  for  truth  would  traverse  the 
same  field  and  there  then  really  seemed  to  be  some  knowl- 
edge that  epileptic  or  insane  persons  who  were  connected 
by  blood  with  the  woman  to  be  put  on  trial  had  really 
lived  and  died  in  the  particular  community.  When  the 
trial  took  place  the  court  room  was  filled  with  bullet- 
headed  Italians  from  the  East  Side  of  New  York  who 
according  to  the  learned  experts  for  the  defence  were 

335 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

br  achy  cephalic  or  short-headed,  "and  therefore  clearly  de- 
generates." The  medical  testimony  was  certainly  the  most 
extraordinary  I  have  ever  known,  and  it  had  its  effect, 
for  she  was  acquitted.  The  prisoner  herself  went  on  the 
stand  and  for  an  hour  pretended  she  could  not  remember 
a  single  incident  of  the  murder,  although  on  the  previous 
trial  a  year  before  she  minutely  detailed  not  only  the  suc- 
cessive steps  of  the  killing^  but  her  motives  and  alleged 
justification.  Maria  subsequently  married  a  man  who 
must  have  been  quite  devoid  of  the  emotion  of  fear. 

In  March,  1899,  the  little  village  of  Virgil,  N.  Y.,  was 
horrified  by  the  discovery  of  the  charred  body  of  Frank 
W.  Miller  in  the  ruins  of  the  barn  of  John  Truck,  a  small 
farmer.  Truck  was  promptly  arrested  and  tried  in  Cort- 
landt  a  year  after,  and  his  defence  was  insanity.  From 
the  testimony  it  appeared  that  he  had  attacked  Miller, 
fracturing  his  skull  and  choking  him  for  the  purpose  of 
robbery.  An  attempt  was  made  by  the  defendant's  ex- 
perts to  show  that  he  was  so  insane  that  "he  did  not  know 
the  nature  and  quality  of  his  act,  and  that  it  was  wrong." 
I  had  seen  Truck,  and  was  at  once  impressed  with  his 
shallow  attempt  to  feign  insanity  when  he  claimed  a  va- 
riety of  symptoms  and  conditions  which  did  not  exist. 
He  pretended  he  could  not  read  or  write  and  knew  noth- 
ing about  the  crime,  that  his  eyesight  was  affected;  yet 
by  the  use  of  a  simple  pair  of  glasses  of  no  power  what- 
ever I  found  he  was  lying  and  could  see  perfectly.  Two 
letters  identified  as  having  been  written  by  him  were  found, 
and  in  these,  like  Waltz,  he  tried  to  fasten  the  murder 
upon  some  one  else — an  imaginary  person.  So  effectually 
did  he  fool  the  medical  men  who  appeared  for  the  de- 
fence and  the  community  that  after  his  conviction  the 
Governor  of  the  State  was  persuaded  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission to  enquire  into  his  sanity.    One  of  its  members 

336 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

was  Dr.  Wm.  Mabon,  of  Ward's  Island,  an  experienced 
and  level-headed  alienist,  who  promptly  found,  as  I  had, 
that  the  man  was  an  impostor,  and  he  was  subsequently 
electrocuted.  In  this  case  the  familiar  attempt  to  find 
marks  of  degeneration,  especially  of  the  head,  was  fol- 
lowed; and  a  local  hatter  was  called  in  with  his  confor- 
mateur.  As  this  admirable  instrument  (which  is  a  great 
help  to  hatters  in  making  a  well-fitting  hat  and  of  little 
use  to  scientific  men  because  it  never  gives  twice  the  same 
results)  will,  unless  great  care  be  taken,  produce  upon 
the  subject  the  most  extraordinary  bumps  whether  he  be 
sane  or  the  reverse,  it  is  absolutely  worthless  except  to 
create  a  laugh  in  the  court  room. 

The  simulators  of  insanity  are  very  rare  outside  of 
prisons.  It  occasionally  happens  that  a  newspaper  re- 
porter like  Chambers  or  "Nelly  Bly"  deceives  the  Asylum 
authorities  in  order  to  write  sensational  accounts  of  their 
incarceration.  It  is  quite  probable  that  the  physician 
never  gave  these  people  a  thorough  examination,  being 
thrown  oiF  his  guard  by  the  idea  of  the  improbability  that 
any  one  would  voluntarily  seek  the  hospitality  of  an  in- 
stitution unless  he  was  really  suffering  from  some  disor- 
der. As  a  rule  the  enterprising  reporter  does  not  accom- 
plish his  purpose,  for  there  is  too  much  method  in  the  al- 
leged madness,  and  too  much  that  is  preposterous  in  his 
"patter."  For  instance,  imagine  a  newspaper  man  whose 
idea  of  insanity  is  embodied  in  this  speech:  "My  house," 
he  said,  "is  in  a  lake  in  a  mountain  on  the  planet  Mars. 
It  was  an  elephant's  nest,  but  I  made  friends  with  him  and 
he  brings  me  food  every  day.  At  night  I  sleep  under  the 
sea  in  a  coral  grotto,  while  mermaids  sing  me  soft  lullabies 
that  woo  the  drowsy  god."  This  nonsense  was  so  unlike 
the  real  talk  of  the  real  lunatic  that  in  a  day  or  two  he  was 
turned  out  and  his  identity  established.     He  was  seen 

337 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

by  my  friend,  Dr.  C.  K.  Mills  of  Philadelphia,  who  re- 
lates the  case,  and  it  is  a  counterpart  of  others  I  have 
known  in  which  the  newspaper  man  very  much  wanted  a 
"story."  There  should  be  no  difficulty  in  applying  tests 
founded  on  scientific  principles  for  detecting  the  malin- 
gerer. Many  means  have  been  suggested  to  throw  such  a 
person  off  his  guard,  and  even  the  use  of  anesthetics  or 
emetics  has  been  advocated ;  but  these  are  rarely  employed. 
I  once  gave  a  suspected  person  a  small  amount  of  ether 
and  the  result  was  the  unmasking  of  the  fraud,  for  the 
prisoner  became  garrulous  and  betrayed  his  intentions. 
Before  this  he  had  for  weeks  been  absolutely  mute. 

Careful  watching,  and  the  apparently  innocent  and 
casual  suggestion  of  impossible  symptoms  which  the  im- 
postor adopts,  are  all  serviceable,  but  no  one  test  is  alone 
sufficient,  and  much  depends  upon  the  shrewdness  and 
intelligence  of  the  subject  himself.  Persistent  observa- 
tion of  which  the  person  is  unaware  as  a  rule  succeeds, 
for  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  keep  up  a  line  of  conduct 
which  is  consistent  with  real  mental  disorder.  One  is  some- 
times speedily  rewarded  for  the  trouble  he  has  taken.  I 
was,  some  years  ago,  asked  by  the  District  Attorney,  Mr. 
Delancy  NicoU,  to  determine  the  mental  condition  of  the 
"boodle"  Alderman  McCabe,  then  confined  in  the  Ludlow 
Street  prison  and  said  to  be  shamming.  With  the  help 
of  the  warden  I  decided  to  play  the  role  of  prisoner  my- 
self, that  I  might  better  watch  the  suspected  man,  who 
was  supposed  by  the  authorities  to  be  feigning,  and  take 
my  daily  walks  with  him.  So  one  morning,  bright  and 
early,  I  dressed  myself  appropriately  and  turned  up  as 
an  imprisoned  debtor,  breakfasting  with  a  motley  collec- 
tion of  crooks,  counterfeiters  and  blacklegs,  as  well  as 
others  who  were  defaulters  in  their  alimony.  After  an 
enlivening  and  very  jolly  meal  in  this  company,  which 

338 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

welcomed  me  cordially,  I  found  my  man  was  not  simulat- 
ing at  all,  but  really  insane,  and  so  I  reported. 

Any  cruel  or  unusual  means  of  inflicting  pain  for  the 
discomfiture  of  the  suspected  person,  are  not  countenanced 
by  reputable  physicians,  and  not  used. 

Simulators  usually  take  their  ideas  of  insanity  from 
plays  and  novels,  consequently  they  copy  absurd  models 
which  picture  a  lunatic  as  without  any  sense  whatever,  or 
as  one  who  raves  or  drools,  or  whose  conduct  is  absolutely 
disorderly.  In  reality  there  is  much  consistency  in  the 
expression  of  mental  disorder,  famihar  to  the  trained  eye. 

The  safest  form  of  simulation,  which  for  obvious  rea- 
sons I  do  not  mention,  is  as  a  rule  unknown  to  the  enter- 
prising criminal.  It  certainly  is  not  mania,  nor  profound 
dementia,  both  of  which  he  usually  overplays.  It  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  him  to  successfully  counterfeit  the 
mental  pictures  of  paranoia,  but  this  is  attempted,  and 
inexperienced  persons  are  often  deceived.  He  may  even 
state  that  he  has  delusions,  a  thing  the  paranoiac  will 
never  admit.  Of  course,  general  paresis  or  the  insanities 
manifested  by  organic  changes,  such  as  alterations  in  the 
pupils,  the  reflexes,  etc.,  are  beyond  his  power  of  imita- 
tion. In  other  psychoses  with  physical  decline,  he  cannot 
feign  the  loss  of  weight,  change  of  colour  incident  to 
feebleness  of  circulation,  or  the  condition  of  the  heart  and 
pulse. 

The  simulator  does  not  know  that  commonly  there  are 
prodromal  or  initial  symptoms  in  insanity.  He  therefore 
plumps  suddenly  into  the  enactment  of  the  role  he  is  to 
play.  The  fraud  at  once  becomes  noisy,  indulges  in  lasci- 
vious language,  or  always  acts  worse  when  observed.  Lest 
he  may  be  considered  too  reasonable,  he  overdoes  his  part 
— ^he  refuses  to  eat,  but  does  so  when  he  thinks  he  is  not 
observed,  or  he  grows  violent  when  refused  food,  which  a 

339 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

real  dement  will  not  do.  When  apparently  delirious  or 
excited  he  stops  in  the  midst  of  his  rJiodomontade  to  give 
himself  time  to  prepare  fresh  material  for  deception, 
meanwhile  perhaps  singing  a  song  or  changing  his  mode 
of  action  when  he  thinks  he  is  not  making  his  case  strong 
enough.  When  improbable  and  absurd  symptoms  are 
suggested  in  his  presence,  he  may  adopt  them — perhaps 
not  at  the  moment,  but  later.  The  loss  of  memory  feigned 
by  the  impostor  is  too  great  to  be  real — for  he  does  not 
know  that  the  insane,  no  matter  how  demented,  never  en- 
tirely lose  their  power  of  recollection,  especially  when  sug- 
gestion is  made.  The  ridiculous  replies  to  questions  put  to 
determine  the  condition  of  memory  will  expose  the  fraud. 
A  case  occurs  to  me  of  a  simulator  who  when  asked  his 
name  replied:  "Forty-five  dollars  and  seventy-three 
cents  with  86%  interest."  Here  the  answer  was  entirely 
irrelevant  and  fabricated  for  a  purpose.  On  other  occa- 
sions he  gave  equally  absurd  and  extravagant  answers  to 
simple  questions. 

Sometimes  the  designing  person  may  be  trapped  by 
the  discovery  of  a  list  of  symptoms  proposed  by  some 
friend  or  other  interested  person.  In  the  Waltz  case  this 
occurred,  something  of  the  kind  being  found  upon  the 
defendant's  person.  He  had  memorised  "the  rules"  and 
tried  to  portray  them,  but  as  usual  he  overshot  the  mark. 

Of  course  when  an  individual  has  associated  with  the 
insane — but  these  cases  are  rare — he  may  acquire  the  ca- 
pacity of  simulation  in  a  way  to  puzzle  the  doctor,  at  least 
for  a  time. 

In  conclusion  I  may  quote  the  words  of  an  able  Ger- 
man psychiatrist,  who  says: 

"The  simulator  is  in  some  respects  like  an  actor;  but, 
unlike  an  actor,  he  must  be  an  author  as  well,  and  he  must 
also  constantly  be  an  improviser;  his  acting,  moreover, 

340 


SIMULATION  AND  IMPOSTURE 

must  be  incessant,  even  if  he  thinks  himself  unobserved. 
A  simulator  must  also  act  before  an  audience  of  trained 
critics  who  cannot  be  diverted  from  his  performances ;  con- 
sequently, he  must  become  exhausted  after  a  few  hours 
and  the  mental  strain  of  such  a  performance  may  in  itself 
be  a  cause  of  mental  breakdown." 


34.1 


CHAPTER  XXI 

POLITICAL   MURDERS 

Assassination  of  Public  Men  Rare  in  the  United  States — Notable 
Murders  in  Europe — American  Presidents — Abraham  Lincoln — 
The  Madness  of  John  Wilkes  Booth — The  Canadian  Plot — 
Booth's  Family  History — His  Stage  Eccentricities — The  Writer's 
Impressions — Booth  Attacks  John  McCullough — The  Murder  of 
Garfield — The  Career  of  Guiteau — My  Interview  with  Mr,  James 
G.  Blaine — Guiteau  Gets  an  Inspiration  in  the  Riggs  House — 
Scoville's  Attack  Upon  General  Grant,  Roscoe  Conkling  and 
Chester  Arthur — Guiteau's  Curse  and  Its  Consequences — ^A  Cor- 
nered Expert — I  Examine  the  Prisoner — The  Assassination  of 
McKinley — The  Insanity  of  Czolgosz — The  Influence  of  Yellow 
Journalism — ^A  Farcical  Trial — The  Attack  on  Mayor  Gaynor. 

Murders  of  public  men  have  happily  been  rare  in  this 
country,  although  three  great  presidents — Lincoln,  Gar- 
field and  McKinley — ^have  fallen  victims  to  the  pistol  of 
the  assassin  during  the  past  fifty  years,  and  Mayor  Gay- 
nor of  New  York  barely  escaped  death.  This  last  was  at 
the  hands  of  Gallagher,  a  vengeful  discharged  night- 
watchman  in  the  Department  of  Docks,  who,  smarting  un- 
der alleged  wrongs  and  suffering  a  severe  rebuff  from  the 
politicians  upon  whom  he  relied  for  his  place,  lay  in  wait 
for  the  mayor  and  shot  him  as  he  was  about  to  sail  for 
Europe.  In  three  of  these  cases,  I  have  personally  ap- 
peared, and  am  familiar  with  the  other.  In  England  and 
elsewhere  in  comparatively  recent  times,  attacks  upon 
royal  personages  by  weak-minded  and  insane  men  have 

342 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

occasionally  occurred,  but  such  serious  and  awful  assassi- 
nations as  those  of  King  Umberto,  of  the  Empress  of 
Austria,  and  Sadi  Carnot,  the  President  of  France,  have 
been  committed  by  anarchists  who  were  legally  responsi- 
ble, and  who  acted  with  other  conspirators.  There  have 
also  been  unsuccessful  attempts  upon  other  crowned 
heads.  Hodei  and  Nobiling  shot  at  the  German  Kaiser, 
and  were  promptly  beheaded;  both  of  these  persons  were 
irritable  and  misguided  fanatics,  and  their  speedy  taking 
off  in  the  presence  of  two  or  three  physicians  and  others 
was  in  a  manner  to  do  away  with  notoriety. 

Two  assaults  were  made  upon  Queen  Victoria  during 
her  life-time;  one  by  Edward  Oxford,  who  shot  at  her  in 
a  public  park,  and  the  other  by  Robert  Pate,  who  struck 
the  queen  with  a  small  cane,  severely  cutting  her  forehead. 
Pate  was  a  young  officer  who  had  for  some  time  shown 
evidence  of  actual  insanity.  The  great  Dr.  Connolly 
found  that  though  the  prisoner  was  suffering  from  no  par- 
ticular delusion,  he  was  of  unsound  mind,  in  which  con- 
clusion he  was  seconded  by  Dr.  Munro,  the  greatest  psy- 
chiatrist of  his  time.  Despite  their  testimony  the  prisoner 
was  found  guilty  and  transported  for  seven  years,  but 
later  was  committed  to  an  asylum.  The  same  intolerance 
that  has  always  been  shown  to  medical  experts  was  in- 
dulged in  by  Mr.  Justice  Baron  Alderson  in  this  case,  who 
scolded  the  alienist  as  follows:  "Be  so  good.  Dr.  Munro, 
as  not  to  take  upon  yourself  the  functions  of  the  judge 
and  the  jury.  If  you  can  give  us  the  results  of  your  sci- 
entific knowledge  upon  the  point,  we  shall  be  glad  to  hear, 
you;  but  while  I  am  sitting  upon  the  bench,  I  will  not 
permit  any  medical  witness  to  usurp  the  functions  of  the 
judge  and  jury,"  and  all  of  this  was  because  Munro  had 
said :  "I  have  had  five  interviews  with  Mr.  Pate  since  the 
transaction,  and  I  believe  him  to  be  of  unsound  mind." 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

But  this  is  less  arbitrary  than  the  conduct  of  a  very  eccen- 
tric Brooklyn  judge,  the  late  Wm.  J.  Gaynor,  who  is  now 
dead.  A  writ  of  habeas  corpus  had  been  issued  by  him 
against  the  Superintendent  of  an  asylum  to  produce  a  no- 
torious lunatic  who  had  been  examined  by  a  number  of 
good  alienists.  When  the  man,  absolutely  insane  and 
showing  his  derangement  whenever  he  talked,  took  the 
witness  stand  at  the  direction  of  his  Honour,  the  latter 

said:   "Now,  Mr. ,  are  you  insane?"  to  which  the 

reply  was  simply:  "No,  sir!"  To  the  consternation  of 
the  lawyers,  doctors,  and  others  present,  without  any 
further  examination  whatever,  the  lunatic  was  told  to 
"clear  out,"  and  the  remark  added,  "I  thought  so." 

The  notable  American  political  murders  are  these: 
President  Abraham  Lincoln  was  shot  April  14th,  1865,  by 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  who  was  slain  by  Sergeant  Corbett, 
April  27th ;  *  President  James  A.  Garfield  was  shot  July 
2,  1881,  by  Charles  Julius  Guiteau,  who  was  hanged  June 
30,  1882;  President  William  McKinley  was  shot  Septem- 
ber 6th,  1901,  by  Leon  F.  Czolgosz  at  Buffalo,  and  the 
latter  was  electrocuted  October  29th,  1901. 

In  all  of  these  cases  the  assailant,  if  not  actually  insane, 
as  I  believe  Czolgosz  to  have  been,  was  eccentric  or  psy- 
chopathic, or  suffered  from  some  nervous  disease :  this  was 
also  the  case  of  Gallagher,  who  was  nevertheless  responsi- 
ble. Both  Guiteau  and  Gallagher  shammed  in  a  manner 
which  would  not  deceive  the  merest  tyro. 

*  By  an  order  dated  May  1st  President  Johnson  decided  that 
Booth's  fellow  conspirators  were  amenable  to  trial  by  military  com- 
mission and  appointed  a  court  to  hear  evidence.  The  trial  of  the 
conspirators  was  begun  May  8th.  The  finding  of  the  military  com- 
mission, fifty-eight  days  after  the  beginning  of  the  trial,  was  ap- 
proved by  President  Johnson  on  July  5th.  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Surrat, 
James  Thornton  Powell,  David  E.  Harold  and  George  A.  Atzerott 
were  hanged  July  7th,  1865. 

3M 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

The  Assassination  of  Lincoln 

John  Wilkes  Booth,  whom  I  had  seen  act  a  few  years 
previously,  was  clearly  of  unsound  mind  and  always  had 
been,  but  as  is  so  often  the  case,  his  madness  was  of  the 
borderline  variety,  which  is  unperceived  by  the  public. 
In  this  case  as  in  many  others  his  intellectual-emotional  in- 
stability was  mistaken  for  the  eccentricity  of  genius,  and 
his  immorality  for  ordinary  weakness.  People  only 
laughed  over  his  insane  escapades. 

He  was  a  dissolute  alcoholic,  and  when  in  his  cups  his 
underlying  mental  disorder  was  most  apparent.  How- 
ever, he  was  handsome  and  popular,  and  his  erratic  conduct 
was  always  forgiven. 

At  a  time  when  a  band  of  conspirators  whose  fiendish 
operations  consisted,  among  other  things,  in  an  attempt 
to  burn  New  York  and  other  cities,  to  introduce  the  fo- 
mites  of  yellow  fever  in  the  North,  and  the  perpetration 
of  other  dastardly  crimes,  it  was  natural  that  some  such 
plot  as  that  which  resulted  in  the  murder  of  Lincoln  and 
the  assault  upon  Secretary  Seward  should  follow.  The 
headquarters  of  this  gang  was  in  Canada,  and  the  names 
of  "Larry"  McDonald,  Jacob  Thompson,  Clement  Clay 
and  others  who  acted  with  them  in  the  South  were  freely 
mentioned  as  participants.  It  was  not  difficult  to  find 
half-crazy  emissaries  to  do  the  work,  and  the  men  in  To- 
ronto and  St.  Catharines  knew  well  how  to  play  upon  the 
vanity  of  certain  weak  young  men  in  the  South  who  sub- 
sequently ruined  themselves.  Sometimes  a  bank,  like  that 
at  St.  Alban's  in  Vermont,  had  to  be  looted  for  funds,  and 
the  town  raided;  again,  a  Southern  doctor  was  found  to 
deposit  the  soiled  clothing  of  yellow  fever  patients  where 
the  infection  would  be  the  greatest.  It  is  somewhat  amus- 
ing nowadays,  when  we  have  agreed  upon  the  mosquito  as 

S45 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  sole  cause  of  infection,  to  realise  that  these  amiable 
murderers  had  only  their  labour  for  their  pains.  Beale, 
Kennedy,  Payne  and  Booth  were  all  tools  of  the  central 
organisation.  While  it  is  positively  settled  that  Booth's 
plan  was  unknown  in  Richmond,  he  was  flattered  and  en- 
couraged by  McDonald  and  the  others  to  become  an 
avenger  of  the  Confederacy;  moreover,  he  had  been  told 
that  the  success  of  the  scheme  depended  upon  him  and 
that  he  was  to  be  the  hero  of  the  moment.  One  of  the 
Confederate  newspapers  at  the  time  said:  "What  could 
please  an  actor,  and  the  son  of  an  actor,  better  than  a  plot, 
the  aims  of  which  were  pseudo-patriotic  and  the  end  so 
astounding  that  at  its  coming  the  whole  globe  would  reel? 
Booth  reasoned  that  the  ancient  world  would  not  feel  more 
sensitively  the  death  of  Julius  Csesar  than  the  modern 
world  the  sudden  taking  off  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

Booth's  heritage  fitted  him  eminently  for  his  crazy 
work.  Born  of  a  father  who  was  evidently  unsound,  he 
possessed  potentially  all  the  characteristics  of  a  paranoiac. 
The  elder  Booth  belonged  to  the  dramatic  school  of  the 
Keans  and  Kembles,  but  was  excitable,  licentious,  unbal- 
anced and  cruel,  and  is  said  to  have  so  identified  himself 
with  the  characters  he  played  as  to  commit  murderous  as- 
saults upon  the  unfortunate  persons  with  whom  he  acted, 
and  "cut  his  adversaries  upon  the  stage  in  sheer  wan- 
tonness, or  bloodthirstiness."  This  father  in  christening 
the  murderer  gave  him  the  name  of  John  Wilkes,  the 
English  agitator,  while  another  son  he  called  Junius 
Brutus. 

As  a  boy  Wilkes  Booth  showed  many  evidences  of  in- 
stability, and  was  ever  subject  to  moods  and  fits  of  mel- 
ancholy, as  well  as  morbid  suspicions  and  moroseness.  He 
was  wayward,  something  of  a  vagabond,  and  at  one  time 
ran  away  from  home  and  joined  the  pirate  oystermen  in 

346 


JOHN    WILKES   BOOTH 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

the  Chesapeake  Bay.  At  other  times  he  was  winning, 
gentle,  and  entirely  lovable.  He  learned  with  difficulty 
at  school,  and  was  all  in  all  an  ignorant  and  unlettered 
man,  although  he  filled  his  pockets  with  newspaper  clip- 
pings— sickly,  sentimental  verses  of  the  style  of  the  early 
sixties — and  recited  or  read  them  to  his  admiring  and  pa- 
tient friends. 

As  a  youth  he  went  upon  the  stage,  and  there  he  made 
at  first  a  dismal  failure.  Instances  of  that  form  of  brain 
weakness  which  in  an  advanced  degree  suggests  aphasia, 
but  in  the  beginning  simply  consists  in  transposition  of 
syllables  or  curious  confusion,  was  shown  by  him  when 
excited.  While  playing  a  small  part  in  Victor  Hugo's 
Lucretia  Borgia  he  was  to  have  said,  "Madame,  I  am 
Petruchio  Pandolfo."  Instead  of  enunciating  this  "line" 
correctly,  he  advanced  and  exclaimed,  "Madame,  I  am 
Pondolfo — Pet — Pedolfo — Pat — Pantuchio  Ped — damn 
it,  what  am  I?" 

Finally  he  starred,  suddenly  making  fame  and  money 
by  the  vigour  and  originality  of  his  work.  I  saw  him  in 
Richard  III  and,  young  as  I  was,  could  not  help  being 
impressed  by  his  morbid  peculiarities,  which  I  later  knew 
to  mean  that  he  was  the  possessor  of  an  unsound  mind. 

Wilkes  Booth  was  vain  and  grandiose  almost  to  a  dis- 
eased degree;  although  his  dastardly  crime  was  arranged 
by  others,  there  is  no  doubt  that  when  he  leaped  upon 
the  stage  after  shooting  the  President,  with  a  huge  bowie 
knife  in  one  hand  and  a  smoking  pistol  in  the  other,  and 
cried,  ''Sic  Semper  Tyrannis — Virginia  is  avenged,"  it  was 
as  much  the  result  of  extravagant  stage-play  and  a  desire 
for  notoriety  as  anything  else.  It  is  somewhat  curious  in 
this  connection  to  read  the  "notice  to  whom  it  concerns," 
left  by  him  with  his  brother-in-law,  John  D.  Clarke.  This 
production  was  a  rambling  and  incoherent  screed,  quite 

347 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

extravagant  and  disorderly.  In  speaking  of  the  American 
flag  he  said:  "Our  once  bright  red  stripes  look  like 
bloody  gashes  on  the  face  of  heaven."  He  upbraided  those 
he  knew  in  the  South  who,  he  said,  were  unjust,  and  re- 
marked that  "if  he  had  to  return  there  he  would  have  to 
become  a  beggar  or  private  soldier." 

Wilkes  Booth  was  personally  a  striking  man,  a  great 
deal  of  a  Lothario,  and  pursued  by  women  wherever  he 
went.  Upon  one  occasion,  however,  he  is  reported  to  have 
imitated  David  Garrick  by  seeking  to  destroy  the  illusions 
of  an  enamoured  girl,  vilifying  himself  and  the  stage,  but 
this  is  probably  mere  gossip. 

His  preparations  for  the  murder  were  deliberate,  for  he 
first  bored  a  hole  in  the  door  of  the  private  box  that  he 
might  see  exactly  where  Mr.  Lincoln  sat,  and  when  he 
forced  his  way  in  and  hastily  took  aim,  it  was  to  find  a  vul- 
nerable point.  Major  Rathbone  told  me  many  years  after 
that  he  was  at  once  impressed  by  the  manifest  craziness 
of  the  assassin  and  his  excited  manner,  and  the  stage  car- 
penter thought  he  was  what  is  nowadays  called  "a  crank." 
By  the  way,  this  word  was  first  used  in  the  Guiteau  case, 
and  was  probably  a  synonym  for  an  eccentric^  invented 
by  some  one  whose  knowledge  of  mechanics  was,  to  say  the 
least,  confused. 

As  I  remember  Booth's  appearance  he  was  a  handsome, 
dashing  man  with  a  magnificent  head  and  features  of  the 
classic  mould.  One  of  his  biographers  spoke  of  his  "Doric 
face."  His  nose  was  Roman  and  his  eyes  dark  and  stern; 
his  curly  black  hair  suggested  his  half- Jewish  origin.  His 
legs,  which  were  slightly  bowed,  detracted  somewhat  from 
his  physical  attractiveness,  but  taking  him  all  in  all  every 
one  admired  his  so-called  "vital  beauty." 

One  of  his  great  friends  was  John  McCullough,  whom 
I  saw  professionally  at  the  beginning  of  the  awful  mental 

34.8 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

disease  which  finally  carried  him  off.  McCuUough  was 
an  honest,  hard-working  Irishman,  who  received  six  dol- 
lars a  week  in  Philadelphia,  when  Booth  got  eight,  and 
made  himself  the  laughing  stock  of  the  galleries  by  his 
blunders  and  general  inefficiency,  but  he  afterward  suc- 
ceeded by  sheer  hard  work.  He  was  of  the  same  robust 
school  as  Edwin  Forrest  and  played  many  of  his  parts. 
After  his  death  there  was  much  idle  and  silly  gossip  about 
his  last  illness,  and  an  enterprising  phonograph  company 
produced  and  unfeelingly  advertised  a  record  which  pur- 
ported to  be  the  "last  ravings  of  John  McCullough." 

As  an  evidence  of  Booth's  difference  from  his  father 
in  the  matter  of  consideration  for  those  with  whom  he 
acted,  it  is  related  that  when  fencing  with  McCullough  in 
the  last  act  of  Richard  III,  the  cross-pin  of  the  hilt  of  the 
sword  of  the  latter  flew  off  and  cut  him  on  the  forehead. 
Not  changing  the  venomous  and  artificial  expression  of  the 
character.  Booth  said  sotto  voce  in  great  distress:  "Good 
God,  John,  did  I  hurt  you?"  and  after  the  act  was  finished 
was  prostrated  by  fear  lest  he  had  injured  his  old  friend.. 
Booth  was  always  a  good  fencer  and  prided  himself  upon 
his  skill. 

I  distinctly  remember  the  great  grief  and  mortification 
of  Edwin  Booth  and  other  members  of  the  family  after 
the  assassination.  They  were  the  objects  of  universal 
sympathy,  especially  Edwin,  and  the  brother  Junius  Bru- 
tus, who  was  arrested  for  alleged  complicity  but  finally 
released  from  the  Capital  Hill  gaol. 

There  is  little  doubt  in  my  mind  that  Booth  was  one  of 
those  persons  now  regarded  as  constitutionally  inferior, 
and  that  his  full  responsibility  for  this  crime  was  doubtful: 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

The  Assassination  of  Garfield 

Early  in  November,  1881, 1  received  a  peremptory  tele- 
gram to  go  to  Washington  to  appear  for  the  United  States 
Government  in  the  trial  of  Charles  Julius  Guiteau,  who  in 
the  preceding  July  had  shot  President  James  A.  Garfield 
in  the  Union  Depot  at  Washington,  having  planned  on 
several  other  occasions  to  "remove"  his  victim.  Every  one 
who  recalls  the  heated  campaign  of  1880  will  remember 
the  political  strife  which  attended  the  final  nomination  of 
a  dark  horse.  General  Garfield  and  Senator  James  A. 
Blaine,  on  one  side,  were  pitted  against  Senators  Roscoe 
Conkling  and  Thomas  B.  Piatt  and  the  members  of  the 
New  York  Republican  machine  on  the  other.  The  New 
York  vote  undoubtedly  elected  Garfield,  although  the 
"machine"  held  out  a  long  time  for  the  nomination  of  Gen- 
eral Grant,  and  there  was  much  bitterness  when  the  de- 
mands of  those  who  desired  it  were  denied.  The  election  of 
1880  had  been  an  active  one.  General  Winfield  Scott 
Hancock  was  the  Democratic  candidate.  His  brilliant  war 
record  and  attractive  presence  appealed  at  the  time  to 
those  who  had  gone  wild  over  Grant — in  many  ways  a  bet- 
ter soldier  than  statesman,  and  whose  popularity  had  be- 
gun to  wane  when  he  became  more  or  less  of  a  politician. 

Every  effort  had  been  made  to  beat  Hancock,  and  the 
country  had  been  flooded  by  campaign  orators  of  all  kinds, 
good  and  bad;  every  hack  politician,  every  cart,  had  been 
pressed  into  service.  One  of  the  former  was  Charles  Julius 
Guiteau,  an  eccentric,  good-for-nothing  fellow  who  had 
originally  come  from  the  West,  and  had  subsequently 
drifted  to  New  England  and  then  to  New  York. 

Guiteau  was  of  a  type  which  is  unliappily  very  common 
everywhere  in  this  country.  Living  by  his  wits,  he  had 
been  in  turn  an  exhorter,  the  publisher  of  a  religious  news- 

350 


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IE  WESTERN  ONION  TELEGSAPH  COMPANY, 


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or   REPty   SHOTJXD   BE   SENT. 


TELEGRAM     FROM    DISTRICT    ATTORNEY     CORKHILL 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

paper,  an  insurance  agent,  a  disreputable  lawyer  who  kept 
most  or  all  of  the  money  he  collected  for  his  few  clients, 
a  member  of  the  Oneida  Community,  a  blackmailer,  and 
always  a  ne'er-do-well.  At  the  time  of  the  killing  of  Gar- 
field he  was  thirty-nine  years  old,  and  had  about  reached 
the  end  of  his  tether.  The  members  of  his  family  were  a 
curious  lot — his  father  being  a  half-crazy  fanatic,  who 
preached  the  pseudo-scientific  doctrines  that  are  so  popular 
among  ignorant  people.  The  paternal  grandfather 
claimed  intimate  relations  with  the  Deity,  and  believed 
he  could  cure  disease  by  the  laying  on  of  hands.  In  fact, 
the  mode  of  life  and  pretensions  of  this  man  were  those  of 
a  host  of  others,  including  Dr.  Quimby  and  Mrs.  Eddy. 
He  was  by  no  means  insane.  Other  members  of  the  mur- 
derer's family  were,  however,  really  insane  persons,  or 
epileptics. 

Guiteau's  own  brother,  whose  mental  soundness  before 
the  trial  was  not  questioned  by  any  one,  was  a  competent, 
honest  man,  and  for  many  years  had  been  an  industrious 
sub-agent  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company  of  New 
York.  Much  capital,  however,  was  afterwards  made  of  his 
peculiar  religious  views,  which  were  quite  as  extreme  as 
those  of  the  rest  of  the  family,  but  such  as  are  shared  by 
many  other  sane  individuals. 

Notwithstanding  Guiteau's  bad  character  and  general 
worthlessness,  and  all  his  peculiar  actions,  the  Republican 
managers  employed  him  to  make  campaign  speeches,  and 
undoubtedly  made  him  promises  they  did  not  later  fulfil. 

Much  has  been  said  of  the  ridiculous  claims  of  Guiteau 
as  to  the  value  of  his  services  as  a  worker  for  the  Repub- 
lican cause.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  the  late 
Dr.  Folsom  of  Boston,  who  believed  him  at  least  partly 
insane,  that  he  only  addressed  one  meeting,  that  an 
assembly  of  negroes.    President  Arthur,  who  went  on  the 

351 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

stand,  testified  that  Guiteau  had  addressed  several  meet- 
ings, and  dehvered  a  few  speeches,  and  though  rendering 
services  that  did  not  entitle  him  to  any  great  reward  or 
preferment,  had  evidently  done  his  part.  Mr.  Blaine  told 
me  scarcely  a  year  before  he  died  that  he  reproached  him- 
self with  the  thought  that  some  of  his  party  had  led  Gui- 
teau to  expect  rewards  which  were  impossible,  and  he  him- 
self had  temporised  to  get  rid  of  him.  Anyhow,  the  miser- 
able wretch,  who  had  lived  by  his  wits  for  years  and  sub- 
sisted chiefly  on  the  remnants  of  free  lunch  counters,  took 
the  flattering  notion  to  himself  that  he  was  to  receive  an 
important  foreign  Consulship,  and  that  Mr.  Hooper  (then 
occupying  that  post  in  Paris)  was  to  be  deposed  that  he, 
Guiteau,  might  be  sent  to  the  French  capital.  After  the 
election  he  haunted  the  State  Department  and  wrote  volu- 
minous and  frequent  letters  of  a  boastful  and  conceited 
kind  to  the  President,  Mr.  Blaine  and  others,  calling  atten- 
tion to  his  claim,  but  only  met  with  snubs  or  repulses.  De- 
spondent and  vengeful,  the  idea  of  murder  suddenly  en- 
tered the  mind  and  heart  of  this  miserable  wretch.  Possi- 
bly there  were  other  reasons  for  his  resolutions.  While  the 
inhuman  suggestion  that  any  one  deliberately  instigated 
the  murder  is  not  to  be  entertained  for  a  moment,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  ignorant  and  idle  tongues  were  at  work  as 
they  always  are  at  such  times,  and  it  is  more  than  possible 
that  Guiteau  received  some  hint  and  took  it  to  heart. 
When  in  Washington  shortly  after  the  trial  I  learned  of 
this  incident,  and  have  no  reason  to  doubt  its  truth,  for  I 
was  told  by  a  person  who  was  present  and  saw  the  actions 
of  the  desperate  assassin: 

Two  men,  prominent  in  official  affairs  during  the  Gar- 
field administration,  were  conversing  in  a  secluded  corner 
of  the  Biggs  House,  which  this  disappointed  politician 
fairly  haunted.    They  did  not  talk  so  low  but  that  a  third 

352 


CHARLES    JULIUS    QUITEAU 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

person  who  was  sitting  just  behind  them  could  hear  every 
word  uttered.  That  man  was  Guiteau !  In  this  conver- 
sation these  two  men  related  the  commonly  known  fact  of 
the  enmity  existing  between  Roscoe  Conkling  and  Pres- 
ident Garfield,  and  stated  that  whoever  settled  the  differ- 
ences that  existed  would  probably  be  rewarded  beyond  his 
wildest  expectations.  Guiteau  grew  more  interested,  tak- 
ing the  hint  literally.  The  paper  he  was  reading  slowly 
slipped  from  his  hands  as  he  listened  vaguely  to  the  words 
which  fell  from  their  lips,  and  he  at  that  time  received  his 
"inspiration."  In  a  South  or  Central  American  country 
his  solution  of  the  difficulty  would  undoubtedly  have 
brought  its  reward,  but  he  had  not  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot 
in  any  such  semi-civilised  place;  his  insanity,  if  any,  con- 
sisted in  the  idea  that  he  should  murder  the  head  of  a  great 
and  enlightened  nation  who  was  after  all  loved  by  the  peo- 
ple, no  matter  how  much  he  was  hated  by  certain  politi- 
cians. 

That  others  considered  the  same  motive  for  the  crime 
is  shown  by  the  scandalous  summing-up  of  Guiteau's 
brother-in-law,  who  horrified  the  court  room  by  saying 
that  "if  there  were  not  powerful  reasons  back  of  the  prose- 
cution, the  prisoner  would  never  have  been  brought  to 
trial.  .  .  .  There  are  politicians  who  seek  to  hide  their 
own  shame  behind  the  disgrace  of  this  poor  prisoner.  .  .  . 
I  do  not  propose  to  keep  quiet.  I  say  that  such  men  as 
Grant  and  Conkling  and  Arthur  are  morally  and  intellec- 
tually responsible  for  this  crime.  Mr.  Conkling  shall  not 
escape,  shall  not  shirk  responsibility  for  the  state  of  things 
that  led  to  this  act." 

With  some  such  false  incentive  Guiteau  prepared  him- 
self for  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  rupture  of  the  polit- 
ical deadlock.  He  bought  a  cheap  revolver  and  car- 
tridges in  O'Meara's  store  on  the  corner  of  Fifteenth  and 

353 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

P  Streets  for  ten  dollars.  His  next  step  was  to  prac- 
tise at  a  mark,  which  he  did  at  the  foot  of  Seventeenth 
Street,  where  he  fired  for  hours  at  a  stake. 

On  Sunday,  June  12th,  1881,  he  armed  himself  and 
trailed  his  victim;  but  in  spite  of  the  "divine  inspiration" 
(a  term  he  afterward  invented)  he  was  a  coward,  and  it 
took  a  great  deal  to  nerve  himself  to  the  point  of  assault. 
In  his  autobiography  he  says:  "I  could  not  make  up  my 
mind,"  or  "I  had  to  work  myself  up,"  or  "I  did  not  feel 
like  it  that  day."  Again  when  he  saw  Mr.  Garfield  at 
church  or  in  public  upon  two  or  three  other  occasions  he 
desisted  because  "there  were  others  around  him."  Even 
before  he  actually  killed  the  President  he  had  hired  a  car- 
riage to  take  him  to  the  gaol  so  that  he  might  escape  the 
vengeance  of  the  crowd. 

When  the  time  came,  the  assassin  coolly  got  his  "pa- 
pers," including  a  "letter  of  explanation,"  from  the  news- 
stand where  he  had  deposited  them;  putting  them  in  his 
pocket,  and  with  the  pistol  which  had  heretofore  been  kept 
in  a  dry  place,  he  advanced  in  the  crowd  and  shot  the  la- 
mented Garfield  in  the  back,  two  shots  being  fired.  The* 
subsequent  treatment  of  the  wounded  Chief-Executive, 
and  his  death,  need  not  be  here  gone  into. 

During  Guiteau's  incarceration  he  was  attacked  by  -two 
would-be  avengers.  On  one  occasion  Sergeant  Mason, 
an  erratic  individual,  fired  a  rifie  ball  into  his  cell,  nar- 
rowly missing  him;  at  another,  a  man  named  William 
Jones  rode  behind  the  prison  van  and  attempted  to  shoot 
the  miserable  wretch  within,  on  his  way  from  the  Court 
to  the  prison.  Upon  many  occasions  the  public  temper 
was  heated  almost  to  the  point  of  explosion,  and  Guiteau 
begged  for  protection.  He  was  nearly  mobbed  when  one 
of  the  vertebrae  of  the  dead  President  was  shown  on  thQ 

354 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

witness  stand  by  Dr.  Bliss,  who  had  attended  Mr.  Garfield 
before  his  death. 

To  any  one  who  saw  him  as  I  did,  day  after  day  and 
week  after  week,  none  would  be  affected  with  anything 
but  disgust  and  pity  for  so  low  a  specimen  of  mankind. 
Like  a  caged  rat  he  fought  and  snarled,  or  cringed  with 
fear.  Again,  for  the  evident  purpose  of  impressing  some 
juryman  with  his  "insanity,"  he  gesticulated  and  shouted 
and  said  things  that  no  real  madman  would.  Of  course, 
his  ordinary  bearing  and  mode  of  speech  were  silly  and 
vulgar  enough,  but  he  had  undoubtedly  always  "acted"  in 
this  way. 

Never  before  or  since  has  there  been  such  a  trial  in  this 
country,  and  the  disorder  at  times  must  have  resembled 
that  of  any  Revolutionary  gatherings  in  Paris  of  1793. 
The  audience  consisted  of  noisy  patriots,  negroes,  fashion- 
able women,  actresses  playing  at  the  time  in  Washington, 
the  demi-mondaine,  politicians,  soldiers  and  the  riffraff 
of  Washington.  It  is  no  wonder  that  angry  protests  from 
writers  in  the  Boston  papers  or  elsewhere  appeared  from 
day  to  day.  The  late  Judge  Cox,  who  tried  the  case,  al- 
ways acted  with  the  greatest  discretion  and  courage,  al- 
though abused  by  the  newspapers  for  allowing  Guiteau 
constantly  to  interrupt  the  proceedings.  The  Court  was 
spoken  of  as  "Cox's  Circus,"  the  trial  as  "The  Disgrace  of 
Cox,"  etc.  He  was,  however,  eminently  fair,  and  prob- 
ably was  actuated  by  a  desire  to  give  the  prisoner 
every  opportunity  to  prove  his  condition.  Finally  the 
judge  ordered  him  to  the  dock,  but  this  did  not  stop  the 
disorderly  interruptions.  The  Vice-President,  while 
placed  in  a  most  delicate  position,  also  showed  great  tact 
when  on  the  witness  stand.  I  met  him  socially  almost 
every  day,  and  never  have  I  seen  a  man  who  so  keenly  felt 
the  peculiarity  of  his  position — a  stalwart  of  stalwarts  was 

355 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

the  successor  of  Garfield,  but  he  earnestly  showed  his 
respect  for  the  memoiy  of  the  dead  President,  no  matter 
what  had  been  his  attitude  before  the  murder. 

The  trial  lasted  seventy-two  days,  and  I  spent  three 
weeks  in  the  foul  court  room,  breathing  the  worst  of  bad 
air  emanating  from  the  diseased  lungs  of  scores  of  dirty 
negroes  and  the  unwashed  bodies  of  filthy  loungers  whose 
damp  clothes  fairly  reeked  with  all  sorts  of  stinks.  The 
windows  were  usually  closed,  and  the  place  was  heated  to 
an  insufferable  degree. 

Many  good  men  contracted  disease,  and  the  trial  had  to 
be  halted  because  of  the  illness  of  a  juryman  and  again 
by  the  illness  of  the  wife  of  another.  Not  a  few  died  sub- 
sequently. Though  Guiteau  cursed  us  all,  it  was  not  his 
anathemas  that  did  the  work,  but  the  mephitic  air.  In 
this  connection,  however,  superstitious  persons  have  com- 
mented upon  the  untimely  deaths  of  an  unusual  number  of 
participants,  including  Judge  Cox,  the  lawyers  of  the 
prosecution — District  Attorney  Corkhill,  Judge  Porter 
and  Mr.  Davidge,  several  of  the  jurors  and  some  of  the 
prominent  experts.  My  dear  friend.  Dr.  A.  E,  MacDon- 
ald,  died  of  tuberculosis,  evidently  c6ntracted  at  this  time. 
When  he  was  sentenced,  Guiteau  said:  "My  blood  will  be 
on  the  heads  of  the  jury,  don't  forget  it";  and  later,  "God 
will  avenge  this  outrage." 

When  I  reached  Washington  one  damp,  snowy  day  in 
November,  I  found  a  cohort  of  alienists,  headed  by  the 
veteran  Dr.  John  P.  Gray  of  Utica.  I  had  been  retained 
by  Judge  Porter,  and  later,  with  Drs.  Gray,  A.  E.  Mac- 
Donald  and  Walter  Kempster,  formed  what  a  sharp- 
tongued  expert  for  the  defence  called  "the  bad  four" — a 
reward,  I  suppose,  for  the  offence  we  gave  Guiteau  and  his 
counsel,  Scoville,  who  was  his  brother-in-law,  by  our  rather 
positive  testimony. 

356 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

Scoville  was  a  type  of  the  abusive  provincial  lawyer,  but 
was  much  in  earnest,  and  despite  his  constant  violation 
of  the  ethics  of  his  profession  and  exhibitions  of  bad  taste, 
fought  valiantly  for  his  unfortunate  relative,  who  gave 
him  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  Like  all  men  more  or  less 
ignorant  of  psychiatry,  he  confidently  asked  questions  of 
opposing  experts  that  got  him  into  trouble.  For  instance, 
when  Dr.  MacDonald  was  on  the  stand  he  was  asked  by 
Scoville  if  he  had  not  met  with  a  case  of  temporary  insan- 
ity in  his  experience.  (Dr.  MacDonald  having  previously 
ridiculed  this  form  of  trouble. ) 

"Yes,  sir,"  replied  the  expert,  "I  know  the  case  of  a 
man  who  was  insane  for  twenty-four  hours." 

Scoville  leaned  forward  exultingly,  and  eagerly  said, 
"and  recovered " 

"No,  sir;  he  died,"  replied  the  urbane  MacDonald,  who 
loved  his  joke  and  was  ever  noted  for  repartee. 

Judge  John  K.  Porter,  a  lawyer  of  wide  experience  in 
both  criminal  and  civil  law  in  New  York,  appeared  for 
the  Government  and  with  him  was  associated  W.  W. 
Davidge,  Esq.,  the  leader  of  the  Washington  bar.  Mr. 
Davidge  was  a  polished  Southern  gentleman,  always 
suave,  but  delightfully  sarcastic  and  incisive,  and  a  splen- 
did cross-examiner,  resembling  in  some  respects  John  E. 
Parsons,  the  latter  the  most  clean-cut  and  logical  lawyer 
I  have  ever  known.  I  shall  never  forget  Davidge's  treat- 
ment of  a  rather  bumptious  young  doctor  from  a  Western 
city,  who  appeared  for  the  defence. 

The  questions  propounded  by  Scoville  rather  gave  the 
impression  that  the  prevalence  of  insanity  is  the  rule,  and 
is  well  recognised,  and  all  this  was  apropos  of  Guiteau's 
family  history.  In  his  blandest  tone  Mr.  Davidge  began 
his  cross-examination  as  follows: 

357 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

"Doctor,"  said  he,  "we  are  all  more  or  less  insane,  are 
we  not?" 

Witness — (with  his  eyes  for  a  moment  fixed  on  the  ceil- 
ing and  with  a  personal  mental  reservation) — "Well, — 
not  every  one,"  and  he  smiled  with  an  air  of  superior  self- 
satisfaction. 

Mr.  Davidge — "Well,  Doctor,  what  proportion  would 
youBxV* 

Witness — (learnedly) — "Well,  I  would  say" — (hesi- 
tating, as  the  decision  was  evidently  a  momentous  one)  — 
"about  two  in  every  five  are  insane." 

Mr.  Davidge  paused,  looked  pained,  and,  turning  slowly 
to  the  jury  box,   said  compassionately,   as  he   scanned 
the  twelve  "good  men  and  true":     "Gentlemen — I  am. 
very,  very  sorry  for  you."    This  was  one  of  the  amusing 
incidents  of  a  dreary  trial. 

I  had  several  occasions  to  see  Guiteau  in  gaol,  when  he 
talked  quietly  and  sensibly  and  took  me  to  task  for  ask- 
ing him  "improper  questions"  about  a  subject  sub  judice. 
In  court  his  whole  conduct  was  different;  he  felt  that  his 
only  successful  defence  was  one  of  insanity,  so  that  he 
gave  way  to  conduct  that  he  thought  would  "shake"  at 
least  enough  jurymen  to  get  a  disagreement.  Like  a  no- 
torious politician  of  recent  years  he  was  fond  of  declaring 
that  the  "American  press  and  people  are  all  with  me!" 

A  few  physicians  who  were  present  at  the  trial  were  by 
no  means  sure  that  he  was  responsible,  and  one  man  ob- 
stinately held  out  for  the  insanity  defence,  having  the 
courage  of  his  convictions.  Guiteau  never  once  referred 
in  his  talks  with  me  to  his  "divine  inspiration"  that  he  had 
to  "remove  the  President,"  and  never  used  extravagant 
hyperbole.  A  true  paranoiac  would,  under  the  circum- 
stances, have  held  to  his  delusions  with  energy  and  in- 
sistence in  court  as  well  as  without, 

358 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

After  the  trial  was  over  an  attempt  was  made  to  get 
an  appeal.  One  Frederick  H.  Snyder  made  an  affidavit 
that  he  had  fomid  a  copy  of  the  Washington  Evening 
Critic,  on  the  margin  of  which  was  written  the  names  of 
several  of  the  jurymen.  The  paper  was  the  issue  of  the 
day  when  William  Jones  attempted  the  assassination  of 
Guiteau.  The  inference  was  that  the  jury  had  read  the 
newspaper  contrary  to  the  statute,  but  the  jurymen  made 
a  counter  affidavit,  and  the  prisoner  was  sentenced  a  few 
days  later. 

After  Guiteau's  death  on  June  30th,  1882,  which  was 
dramatic,  as  he  still  harangued  the  spectators  even  from 
the  scaffold,  his  body  was  taken  for  dissection.  There 
was  some  delay,  and  the  weather  was  as  hot  as  it  can  only 
be  in  Washington  in  summer.  The  brain,  therefore,  was 
found  to  have  undergone  the  post-mortem  softening  that 
might  have  been  expected.  Pieces  were  taken  by  various 
physicians,  and  I  made  a  careful  examination,  but  with 
negative  results.  Other  specimens  were  taken  by  Dr. 
Lamb  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office,  who  had  made  the 
autopsy  on  the  body  of  President  Garfield,  and  by  Dr. 
Shakspere,  a  distinguished  pathologist  of  Philadelphia; 
one  neurologist  who  was  present  at  the  autopsy,  and  who 
examined  it  declared  the  brain  of  the  assassin  to  be  af- 
fected. I  believe  that  the  appearances  he  found  were 
undoubtedly  due  to  carelessness  in  handling,  and  to  the 
hot  weather,  in  which  conclusion  the  others  agreed. 

Even  to-day  there  is  much  dispute  over  Guiteau's  men- 
tal condition  and  make-up.  At  the  time,  I  said:  "Guiteau 
is  only  a  shrewd  scamp,  with  the  plausibility  of  an  Alfred 
Jingle  in  swindling  his  boarding-house  keepers,  and  evad- 
ing the  payment  of  his  debts ;  the  visionary  enthusiasm  of 
Micawber  or  Colonel  Sellers;  the  cant  and  hypocrisy  of 
Aminadab  Sleek,  or  Uriah  Heep;  the  ambition  of  Eras- 

359 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

tratus,  and  the  murderous  manners  of  Felton,  who  assassi- 
nated the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  of  whose  crime  the  killing 
of  Garfield  was  an  exact  counterpart."  Like  one  of  the 
murderers  in  Macbeth,  he  might  have  said: 

"And  I  another  so  weary 
With  disasters,  tugged  with  fortune. 
That  I  would  set  my  life  on  any  chance 
To  mend  it,  or  be  rid  on't." 

The  Assassination  of  President  McKinley 

On  September  6th,  1901,  during  the  Pan-American 
World's  Fair  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  the  whole  nation  was 
again  shocked  by  the  news  of  the  assassination  of  Presi- 
dent William  McKinley  by  a  Polish  wire  worker,  named 
Leon  Czolgosz.  This  person  advanced  in  a  queue  of  peo- 
ple who  awaited  their  turn  to  shake  hands  with  the  Presi- 
dent in  a  building  known  as  the  Temple  of  Music.  No 
one  had  observed  the  tall,  smooth-faced  young  man  who, 
when  his  turn  came,  hastily  aimed  a  pistol  and  fired  two 
shots  into  the  body  of  the  unsuspecting  man,  whose  hand 
was  already  extended  to  grasp  his.  To  further  his  pur- 
pose Czolgosz  had  twisted  his  handkerchief  about  the 
weapon,  thus  concealing  it  so  that  no  one  had  seen  what 
happened  until  the  shots  were  fired  and  the  President  fell. 
Immediately  there  was  an  inconceivable  scene ;  the  fanat- 
ical murderer  was  thrown  to  the  floor,  beaten  and  stamped 
upon,  and  when  rescued  with  great  difiiculty  and  taken 
to  the  gaol,  his  body  was  covered  with  cuts,  and  his  cloth- 
ing torn  in  shreds.  The  same  unreasoning  vindictiveness 
and  violence  that  has  been  shown  on  many  other  occasions 
possessed  the  onlookers,  although  the  conduct  of  the  man 
at  the  time  clearly  betrayed  his  madness.  This  desire  for 
summary  punishment  extended  throughout  the  country, 

360 


LEON    F.    CZOLGOSZ    BEFORE   AND    AFTER    THE     AfURDER 

Upper  picture  before  and  lower  pictures  after 
the   murder,    showing   facial    changes 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

while  the  press  in  particular  was  more  vengeful  than  at  the 
time  of  the  Guiteau  murder. 

There  was  much  hysterical  agitation,  and  numerous 
plans  were  suggested  by  the  usual  class  of  letter  writers, 
some  being  more  absurd  than  others  for  the  suppression  of 
anarchy.  One  New  Jersey  judge,  I  am  told,  publicly  ad- 
vocated the  execution  of  all  anarchists  by  a  red-hot  circular 
saw. 

The  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt  kept  his  head  and  ad- 
vised moderation,  and  when  addressing  the  New  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  said:  "I  do  not  know  what  fur- 
ther legislation  may  accomplish,  but  I  should  expect  very 
little  from  it — from  a  more  earnest  public  opinion,  from 
a  sounder  public  judgment,  I  should  expect  more." 

Undoubtedly  the  crime  was  precipitated  by  the  outra- 
geous attacks  printed  in  one  of  the  sensational  and  irre- 
sponsible journals  of  the  time.  This  paper  had  for  weeks 
been  abusing  McKinley,  and  accusing  him  of  working  in 
the  interests  of  the  trusts.  In  one  issue  it  said :  "McKin- 
ley's  fat  white  hand  has  tossed  to  the  starving  American 
peasant  the  answer  out  of  the  White  House  window,  'A 
trust  can  do  no  wrong,'  "  and  again,  "  'Has  assassination 
ever  changed  the  World's  history?'  We  invite  our  readers 
to  think  over  this  question."  A  despatch  from  Washing- 
ton to  the  same  paper,  dated  February  4th,  said:  "The 
bullet  that  pierced  Goebel's  chest  cannot  be  found  in  all 
the  West;  good  reason.  It  is  speeding  to  stretch  McKin- 
ley on  his  bier." 

The  New  York  Sun  said  editorially  in  commenting 
upon  the  above :  "The  utter  perversion  of  the  thing  known 
as  yellow  journalism  was  never  shown  more  conclusively 
or  offensively  than  in  this  hypocritical  pretence  to  exalted 
motives  in  connection  with  other  ends  as  a  cloaked  com- 
plicity in  a  crime  that  has  shocked  the  entire  country." 

361 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

In  this  same  newspaper  were  vulgar  and  inflammatory 
caricatures  of  the  crudest  kind  in  which  the  "artist"  Dav- 
enport not  only  grossly  insulted  the  Chief  Magistrate,  but 
Senator  Mark  Hanna  and  various  other  public  characters, 
who  were  alleged  to  be  acting  "against  the  public  inter- 
ests." It  is  not  surprising,  as  in  the  Gallagher  and  other 
cases,  that  just  such  incendiary  suggestions  proved  all  that 
was  necessaiy  to  prompt  a  murderous  assault  by  an  insane 
or  drunken  subject.  As  a  rule  these  assassins  belong  to 
the  class  of  hereditary  degenerates  with  a  mystical  tem- 
perament so  aptly  described  by  the  French  alienist.  Regis, 
who  at  times  are  misled  by  a  political  or  religious  delirium, 
believing  themselves  to  be  agents  of  justice,  and  martyrs, 
and  who  make  their  killing  as  the  result  of  irresistible  ob- 
sessions. There  is  always  a  nobler  mission,  and  they  may 
have  visions  or  see  apparitions.  There  is  commonly  a 
consistency  in  their  conduct  which  was  found  in  that  of 
Czolgosz  alias  Neumann,  but  not  in  Guiteau,  who  clearly 
invented  the  "inspiration"  which  he  said  directed  him  to 
kill  Garfield. 

When  Czolgosz  was  arrested  he  manifested  the  bearing 
of  a  hero  who  had  performed  an  inspiring  act,  but  this 
speedily  disappeared  when  he  was  taken  to  the  gaol  and 
the  familiar  third  degree  was  energetically  applied  to  make 
him  confess  who  were  his  possible  accomplices.  From 
what  I  could  learn  at  the  time  he  suffered  unusual  torture, 
the  result  being  what  is  so  often  the  case — the  production 
of  a  mild  dementia  which  followed  the  shock.  According 
to  the  sagacious  police  and  newspaper  reports  of  the  day 
"the  prisoner's  display  of  nerve  is  a  mere  veneer  of  bra- 
vado and  it  is  confidently  predicted  that  he  will  collapse 
when  the  sentence  of  death  is  passed  upon  him."  This  he 
did,  but  before  he  entered  the  court,  and  not  in  the  man- 
ner predicted  by  these  wise  prophets.    At  no  time  was  he 

362 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

free  from  his  delusions,  but  all  his  exaltation  was  crushed 
out  by  the  brutal  hand  of  the  authorities. 

I  was  sent  for  by  Ainsley  Wilcox,  the  distinguished 
Buffalo  lawyer  at  whose  house  the  President  finally  died, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  District  Attorney  went  to  Buf- 
falo on  Sunday  afternoon,  May  3rd,  1902.  On  arriving,  I 
found  that  the  three  people's  experts,  and  the  two  physi- 
cians retained  by  the  Erie  County  Bar  Association  had 
made  up  their  minds  that  the  prisoner  was  sane.  It  seems 
that  they  were  a  long  time  reaching  a  conclusion,  and  had 
made  their  report  only  an  hour  before  they  heard  I  was 
coming  to  Buffalo.  A  secret  meeting,  to  which  I  was  not 
invited,  was  held  that  night  by  the  experts  with  the  attor- 
neys of  both  sides,  and  it  was  decided  to  go  on  with  the 
trial.  It  really  would  appear  as  if  every  one  had  surren- 
dered to  the  popular  clamour  for  the  life  of  Czolgosz,  who 
was  practically  friendless  and  deserted.  I  was  then  told 
that  no  further  examination  was  necessary,  after  I  had 
been  informed  the  night  before  that  I  was  to  see  the  pris- 
oner at  nine  o'clock  on  Monday  morning.  I  was,  however, 
permitted  to  attend  the  trial,  which  I  did.  This  was  on 
September  23rd,  1901.  I  really  do  not  think  in  all  my  ex- 
perience that  I  have  ever  seen  such  a  travesty  of  justice, 
nor  have  I  heard  of  such  a  tribunal  except  in  the  clever 
Grand  Guignol  little  horror  of  Les  Trois  Messieurs  dio 
Havre. 

The  prisoner  was  brought  into  court  accompanied  by 
one  of  his  brothers.  He  was  a  tall  young  man  with  good 
features,  but  bore  the  effects  of  his  ill-usage  for  a  red  scar 
ran  across  his  face.  His  was  a  prepossessing  personality, 
and  there  was  none  of  the  repulsive  cunning  or  ugliness 
of  Guiteau.  He  was  clearly  demented,  though,  and  seemed 
to  take  little  or  no  interest  in  the  proceedings.  When 
made  to  stand  up,  he  evidently  did  not  understand  the  na- 

363 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ture  of  the  indictment,  which  was  read  twice,  and  he  had 
to  be  asked  twice  to  plead.  Finally,  when  his  coat-tail  was 
pulled  by  his  brother  and  the  hint  given,  he  said,  in  a  low 
voice:  "Guilty."  This,  however,  was  not  received  by  the 
judge,  who  forced  him  to  plead  "not  guilty"  and  the  latter 
plea  was  entered  on  the  record. 

That  this  should  be  done,  unless  the  learned  Judge 
White  himself  had  doubts  of  the  prisoner's  sanity,  is  incon- 
ceivable. Then  this  trial  went  on.  The  two  superannu- 
ated and  apparently  self-satisfied  ex- judges  assigned  for 
the  defence  apologised  freely  and  humbly  for  their  appear- 
ance in  behalf  of  this  wretched  man^  referred  to  "the  das- 
tardly murder  of  our  martyred  President,"  and  really 
made  nothing  more  than  a  formal  perfunctory  effort,  if 
it  could  be  called  such.  Long  and  fulsome  perorations 
were  indulged  in  by  these  remiss  members  of  a  great  and 
dignified  profession,  and  others  who  praised  the  dead 
President,  and  flattered  each  other,  the  District  Attorney, 
the  Presiding  Judge,  the  Medical  Faculty  of  Buffalo,  and 
every  one  else  they  could  think  of.* 

The  doctors  and  surgeons,  one  after  the  other,  were 
caUed  to  tell  what  they  had  individually  and  collectively 
done  for  President  McKinley,  and  after  a  great  deal  more 
of  this  sort  of  testimony  the  poor  madman  was  sentenced 
to  death.  All  through  the  trial  he  had  appeared  abso- 
lutely silent  and  indifferent,  and  in  fact  said  little  before 
his  execution  except  to  reiterate  his  insane  claim  that 
in  killing  McKinley  he  had  acted  only  in  the  interests  of 
the  poor  man  and  for  the  public  good.  Some  of  this  was 
the  reflex  of  the  yellow  journal — some  the  fruit  of  the 

*  According  to  a  Buffalo  daily  newspaper,  "Judge  Lewis'  summing 
up  for  the  prisoner  consisted  mainly  in  an  apology  for  appearing  as 
counsel  for  the  defendant  and  a  touching  eulogy  of  his  distinguished 
victim." 

364 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

months  of  insane  brooding.  The  two  illustrations  here 
presented  show  his  insane  facies  (Figs.  56  and  57)  before 
and  after  the  murder. 

Had  I  been  allowed,  and  had  the  trial  not  been  hurried 
on  with  such  indecent  haste,  I  would  have  made  the  same 
examination  subsequently  undertaken  by  Dr.  Walter 
Channing,  the  learned  psychiatrist  of  Brookline,  Mass., 
who  after  the  execution  established  without  doubt  the  fam- 
ily degeneracy  and  the  prisoner's  mental  disease,  but  the 
newspapers  were  impatient  and  something  had  to  be  done, 
and  at  once,  to  appease  the  vengeful  and  restless  public. 
The  case  was  tried  and  a  verdict  of  "guilty"  was  rendered 
within  a  period  of  two  court  days,  with  sessions  from  10-12 
in  the  forenoon  and  2-4i  in  the  afternoon,  the  time  actually 
occupied  being  eight  and  one-half  hours.  Much  congratu- 
lation was  afterward  indulged  in  upon  this  "record." 

Czolgosz  had  really  no  anarchistic  society  behind  him, 
and  though  Emma  Goldman's  name  was  mentioned,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  assassin  had  only  heard  one  of  her  lectures, 
and  this  one  was  most  harmless,  temperate  and  sensible. 
He  had  tried  to  affiliate  himself  with  an  anarchistic  society 
in  Cleveland,  but  had  been  kept  at  arm's  length  by  its 
head,  one  Schilling,  and  others  whom  he  had  impressed 
months  before  by  his  crazy  conduct.  The  newspaper  organ 
called  The  Free  Society  even  advertised  him  as  a  spy  be- 
cause of  his  erratic  behaviour. 

The  assassin  was  really  a  defective  who  had  long  been 
drifting  to  paranoia,  and  whose  actual  delusions  of  per- 
secution and  grandeur  found  soil  in  which  to  grow.  As 
early  as  the  spring  of  1901  his  family  said  he  had  "gone 
to  pieces" ;  he  neglected  his  trade,  and  became  a  vagabond. 
He  had  delusions  that  he  was  being  poisoned,  for  he  bought 
and  cooked  his  own  food,  and  would  not  let  even  his  mother 
prepare  his  meals.    He  talked  a  great  deal  about  anarchy 

S65 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  murder,  and  eagerly  read  the  accounts  of  the  assassi- 
nation of  King  Humbert;  he  likewise  had  religious  and 
"exalted"  delusions.  His  ordinary  conduct  before  the 
commission  of  the  crime  had  been  orderly  and  gentle; 
he  was  fond  of  children  and  simple  things,  and  a  week 
before  his  act  had  played  with  the  little  daughters  of  the 
people  with  whom  he  stayed.  He  was  not  notably  vain- 
glorious, and  in  the  performance  of  the  deed  must  have 
known  that  he  was  to  surely  sacrifice  his  life,  and  would 
probably  be  torn  to  pieces  by  the  angry  populace.  He 
was  undoubtedly  of  weak  nature  and  absorbed  the  doc- 
trines of  anarchism  in  the  same  manner  that  certain  mor- 
bid adolescents  undergo  a  religious  change  which  leads 
to  a  familiar  kind  of  breaking  down.  Unlike  the  ordi- 
nary anarchist,  who  when  he  kills  takes  means  to  save  his 
neck  and  escape,  this  boy  carried  his  fanatical  recklessness 
to  the  extreme  danger  point  with  complete  indifference  to 
his  fate. 

In  the  electric  chair  his  last  words,  I  learn,  were  an 
expression  of  his  delusions  which  he  consistently  held  to 
the  last,  and  he  died  believing  himself  to  be  a  martyr.  The 
post-mortem  examination  showed  nothing,  but  the  young 
medical  man  who  made  it  admitted  very  properly  and 
fairly  that  "no  indications  of  insanity  can  be  found  in 
many  individuals  who  have  been  for  a  long  period  men- 
tally disturbed." 

The  Attack  Upon  Mayor  Gaynor 

When  Mayor  Gaynor  entered  upon  his  duties  he  almost 
immediately  incurred  the  enmity  of  a  newspaper  given  to 
violent  language  and  unsparing  attack.  Undoubtedly 
some  of  this  was  due  to  a  well-understood  political  quarrel 
incident  to  the  campaign,  and  some  arose  from  his  own 

366 


POLITICAL  MURDERS 

disposition  to  speak  his  mind  openly  and  fearlessly  upon 
any  occasion. 

At  this  juncture  a  discharged  night-watchman,  named 
James  J.  Gallagher,  who  had  for  some  years  been  in  the 
city  employ,  who  had  been  repeatedly  discharged  for  ne- 
glect of  duty  of  the  most  flagrant  nature,  and  who  had 
been  reinstated  time  and  time  again  by  the  "machine," 
committed  a  fresh  offence  which  could  not  be  forgiven. 
He  was  a  notorious  letter-writer  and  mischief  maker, 
and  had  not  only  ventured  to  advise  the  late  President 
Cleveland,  but  Theodore  Roosevelt  as  to  the  conduct  of 
their  campaign,  and  the  administration  of  their  public 
offices.  If  ever  a  man  had  the  cacoaihes  scribendi,  it  was 
Gallagher,  and  after  he  had  been  tried  and  dismissed  he 
appealed  to  Mayor  Gaynor  in  violent  and  ill-judged  let- 
ters; the  Mayor,  while  showing  all  kindness,  refused  to 
interfere.  It  was  then  that  the  man  read  an  incendiary 
clipping  which  was  a  veiled  attack  upon  the  Mayor  him- 
self. This  was  found  upon  Gallagher's  person  after  his 
arrest. 

After  making  all  necessary  preparations,  he  bought  a 
pistol  and  cartridges  with  the  proceeds  of  jewelry  he  had 
pawned,  and  went  to  the  steamship  pier  at  Hoboken,  where 
he  lay  in  wait  for  the  invalid  who  was  on  his  way  abroad. 

The  assault  is  too  recent  to  need  further  notice,  except 
it  may  be  said  that  Commissioner  Edwards,  who  saved 
the  life  of  his  chief,  received  a  wound  in  his  arm.  When 
I  subsequently  examined  Gallagher  he  was  perfectly  aware 
of  what  he  had  done — ^had  a  healthy  sense  and  power  of 
choice  between  right  and  wrong,  and,  in  substance,  ad- 
mitted his  responsibility  and  motive.  I  later  investigated 
his  career  and  found  that  for  years  he  had  been  a  dissolute 
pot-house  politician,  very  much  of  the  stamp  of  Bieral, 
who  shot  Mr.  Beattie  of  the  Custom  House  some  years 

S67 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

before,  in  which  case  I  appeared  for  the  Government.  He 
had  a  mysterious  "pull,"  and  upon  one  occasion  a  relative 
who  was  a  Jesuit  priest  had  interceded  for  him,  and  had 
him  restored  to  duty.  His  career  for  a  long  time  was  a 
chequered  one.  In  1896  he  got  into  trouble  by  writing 
abusive  letters  to  his  superiors.  On  January  21st,  1901, 
he  was  arrested  for  indecent  exposure  and  sentenced  for 
three  months.  Some  time  before  he  had  assaulted  and  tried 
to  kill  his  mistress — in  fact,  for  years  he  had  been  a  bad 
character  and  often  drunk. 

When  another  alienist  and  myself  examined  Gallagher 
we  found  him  to  be  suffering  from  advanced  locomotor 
ataxia,  which  a  doctor  in  a  neighbouring  state  quite  erro- 
neously, I  believe,  diagnosed  as  general  paralysis  because 
an  examination  of  the  fluid  of  the  spinal  canal  contained 
certain  cells.  These,  however,  are  common  in  all  forms  of 
syphilitic  disease  invading  the  spine  as  well  as  the  brain. 
There  never  was  a  case  where  "hot  house  science"  so 
clouded  the  real  issue,  but  the  jury  was  not  deceived,  for 
it  brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and  Gallagher  was  sent 
to  Trenton  for  twelve  years.  Trenton  is  the  same  New 
Jersey  city  which  contains  the  State  Insane  Asylum  pre- 
sided over  by  the  same  insistent  expert  who  declared  the 
guilty  man  a  paretic. 

I  am  very  sure  he  was  not  insane  at  the  time  of  our 
examination,  although  this  was  the  contention.  He  was  a 
cunning  rogue,  who  lied,  and  his  only  physical  evidences 
of  decay  were  due  to  his  years  of  immorality. 


868 


CHAPTER   XXII 


THE   DANGEROUS   INSANE 


Risks  Run  by  Physicians — A  Struggle  On  the  House-tops — An  At- 
tack Upon  Dr.  MacDonald — A  Paranoiac  Dentist — Lillian  Rus- 
sell's Persecutor — I  Expect  a  Visit  from  a  Homicidal  Patient — 
Suicidal  Patients — Responsibility  of  Nurses — A  Peculiar  Diet — 
The  Human  Ostrich — Self-Mutilation — A  Dangerous  Doctor — 
The  Liberation  of  Dangerous  Insane  from  the  Asylums. 

Association  with  the  insane  is  not  always  free  from  dan- 
ger, although,  contrary  to  the  popular  idea,  there  is  very 
little  risk  for  the  physician  in  whose  charge  they  may 
be,  except  perhaps  in  criminal  asylums.  The  real  danger 
exists,  outside  of  hospitals,  in  communities  in  whose  midst 
are  every  day  to  be  found  a  surprisingly  large  number 
of  potential  criminals  who  are  only  waiting  for  an  occa- 
sion to  do  violence. 

I  can  well  remember  in  my  early  days  an  instance  of 
the  danger  of  trying  to  commit  a  cunning  and  dangerous 
paranoiac  who  had  been  at  large  for  some  time,  having 

been  prematurely  discharged.    Old  Dr.  C ,  one  of  the 

most  prominent  American  psychiatrists  in  his  day,  who 
died  a  few  years  ago,  asked  me  to  meet  him  at  a  certain 
house  in  the  ninth  ward  to  see  and  possibly  commit  a  man 
who  had  terrorised  his  family  for  some  days.  The  house 
v/as  one  of  the  small  red  brick  kind  with  a  steep  gabled 
roof  which  is  nowadays  very  rarely  found,  but  which  was 
then  common  enough.    As  I  neared  Sixth  Avenue  I  found 

369 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

a  crowd  of  several  hundred  excited  people  all  looking  in- 
tently at  something  going  on  above  their  heads  on  the 
other  side  of  the  street.  It  was  our  lunatic.  With  his 
arms  about  the  chimney  clung  my  elderly  professional 
friend,  crying  loudly  for  help,  while  his  bald  head,  divested 
of  the  wig  he  always  wore,  shone  in  the  bright  sunlight. 
Grasping  his  legs  was  the  insane  man,  who  did  his  best 
to  carry  the  doctor  with  him  down  into  the  street — ^but 
the  old  gentleman  held  bravely  on  until  a  policeman  and 
I  got  through  the  scuttle  and  took  charge  of  matters. 
The  doctor's  dilemma  was  the  end  of  a  mad  chase  through 
the  house,  participated  in  by  the  family  and  servants,  and 
when  we  found  him  he  was  in  a  state  vastly  different  from 
the  very  great  neatness  for  which  he  was  always  noted, 
most  of  his  clothes  being  gone;  he  was,  indeed,  a  fit  subject 
for  a  barrel. 

The  late  Dr.  William  A.  Hammond  was  once  called  to 
see  an  athletic  stock  broker  who  had  become  insane,  and 
as  a  result  demolished  practically  all  the  chinaware  in 
the  boarding  house  where  he  lived,  besides  severely  punish- 
ing a  kind  young  clergyman  who  had  sought  to  reason 
with  and  deter  him.  With  great  difiiculty  he  was  quieted, 
and  when  I  took  him  from  the  police  station  to  a  small 
sanitarium  at  Fishkill-on-the-Hudson  he  was  under  the 
influence  of  one  or  more  hypodermic  injections  of  mor- 
phine. When  we  reached  the  old  Hudson  River  railroad 
station  at  Thirtieth  Street  and  Ninth  Avenue  and  occu- 
pied the  forward  compartment  in  the  Wagner  palace 
parlour  car,  he  seemed  to  show  some  slight  return  of  his 
earlier  exhilaration,  became  suspicious,  and  ordered  the  de- 
tective who  accompanied  us  to  go  to  the  back  part  of  the 
car;  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  he  was  too  ready  to  do,  for 
I  never  saw  him  again.  I  bought  my  charge  an  evening 
newspaper,  which  he  read  upside  down ;  and  he  persisted  in 

370 


THE  DANGEROUS  INSANE 

keeping  the  front  door  of  the  car  open.  Later  he  grew 
more  restless,  talking  in  a  jovial,  excited  way,  seeming  to 
like  me  more  than  the  others.  Presently,  without  a  word 
of  warning,  he  leaned  over,  took  me  by  the  arm,  and  said, 
"Come!  let's  get  off!"  As  we  were  quite  alone  and  the 
train  was  going  forty  miles  an  hour,  the  prospect  was 
really  not  a  pleasant  one;  and  as  my  companion  was  a 
burly  man  of  at  least  six  feet  two  inches  tall,  and  an  ama- 
teur wrestler  as  well,  I  had  to  act  quickly.  When  I  first 
met  the  patient  I  had  noticed  his  dandyism  in  dress, 
and  his  constant  reference  to  the  mirror  for  the  adjust- 
ment of  his  cravat.  This  struck  me  as  queer  in  a  man 
who  was  so  incoherent  and  preoccupied  in  other  ways, 
and  it  all  came  back  now  in  an  instant.  My  immediate 
reply  was  as  indifferent  as  I  could  make  it — "I  wouldn't 
do  that  if  I  were  you;  if  you  do  jump  and  land  in  the  cin- 
der heaps  you  will  only  tear  your  clothes  and  cover  them 
with  blood  and  dirt,"  which  seemed  to  convince  him,  for 
he  took  his  seat  and  finally  became  more  tractable.  But 
it  can  not  be  said  that  the  remainder  of  the  trip  was  one 
of  enjoyment. 

Only  a  short  time  ago  I  found  reference  to  an  English 
case  of  a  man  who,  being  cornered  with  a  razor,  told  his 
nurse  that  he  intended  to  cut  his  throat.  She,  too,  unwill- 
ing to  engage  in  a  personal  struggle,  remonstrated  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  "make  the  room  dirty"  and  begged 
him  to  cut  his  throat — ^if  cut  his  throat  he  would — "over 
a  basin."  To  this  he  at  once  assented,  but  when  the  basin 
was  brought  he  had  not  the  power  to  do  it.  The  impulse 
had  disappeared. 

The  most  dangerous  lunatics,  of  course,  are  the  homi- 
cidal paranoiacs  who  are  often  cunning  to  a  degree,  and 
perfect  with  infinite  labour  their  preparations  for  any 
crazy  scheme  they  may  have  in  view.    Dr.  A.  E.  MacDon- 

371 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

aid,  when  Superintendent  of  the  New  York  City  Asylum 
on  Ward's  Island,  had  a  convalescent  patient — an  excel- 
lent man  servant,  who  was  so  well  behaved  and  apparently 
so  attached  to  his  interests  that  he  determined  to  allow 
him  to  wait  upon  him  in  his  office.  One  day  the  doctor 
happened  to  glance  at  a  mirror  at  the  other  end  of  the 
room  and  saw  the  man  acting  rather  queerly,  and  holding 
something  in  his  hand  which  looked  like  a  weapon.  Mac- 
Donald  quickly  disarmed  him  and  found  that  it  was  a 
piece  of  bone  with  a  hole  in  which  was  inserted  a  nail  sharp- 
ened to  a  point  upon  a  stone,  with  which  he  would  have 
killed  him.  In  spite  of  all  his  quiet  ways  and  apparent 
self-restraint  the  man  all  the  time  harboured  the  delusion 
that  the  Superintendent  was  actually  engaged  in  trying  to 
kill  Mm  by  electricity. 

The  paranoiac  may,  for  a  very  long  time,  and  even 
though  he  believes  himself  the  object  of  a  conspiracy, 
have  intelligence  to  respect  and  observe  the  laws  and  not 
retaliate  upon  his  wholly  imaginary  enemies.  Sometimes 
this  is  owing  to  natural  cowardice,  or  again  he  makes  fre- 
quent appeals  to  the  police  or  authorities  before  he  re- 
luctantly takes  the  law  into  his  own  hands. 

I  was  once  consulted  by  a  dentist— not  that  he  admitted 
he  was  at  all  mentally  wrong,  but  he  came  to  me  because 
he  wished  to  know  how  he  might  punish  those  who  made 
life  so  miserable  for  him.  He  had  quarrelled  with  his  wife 
and  accused  her  and  a  business  rival  of  forcing  the  vapour 
of  chloroform  and  "other  noxious  gases"  through  the  key- 
hole of  his  office.  A  short  time  later  he  complained  to  a 
policeman  in  the  park  that  a  man  who  sat  upon  an  adjoin- 
ing bench  was  seeking  to  hypnotise  him  and  give  him 
chlorine  gas,  and  the  latter  was  arrested,  but  at  once  dis- 
charged by  the  police  magistrate.  Although  he  had  pic- 
turesque hallucinations  and  delusions  of  this  kind  which 

372 


THE  DANGEROUS  INSANE 

he  at  times  expressed,  he  did  good  work  in  his  caUing 
and  showed  nothing  else  in  his  manner  or  speech  to  in- 
dicate that  he  was  insane.  He  was  too  weak  an  individual 
to  kill  his  enemies,  but  soon  began  to  talk  of  committing 
suicide  to  escape  them.  A  year  after  the  event  in  the  park 
I  went  abroad,  and  when  crossing  in  the  night  boat  from 
Calais  to  Dover  what  was  my  surprise  to  be  approached 
by  my  friend  the  dentist,  who  in  a  mysterious  way  took 
me  one  side  and  told  me  he  had  left  New  York  to  escape 
"them"  but  that  "they"  were  everywhere.  He  talked 
of  suicide,  and  I  watched  him  all  night  and  when  I  landed 
I  cabled  to  his  friends,  who  had  never  realised  the  danger. 
According  to  his  story,  he  had  had  a  mad  chase  all  over 
Europe  adopting  disguises  but  could  not  find  relief  or  hide 
himself. 

Many  asylum  officials  have  been  assaulted  or  killed,  and 
the  medical  officers  of  Matteawan  or  Dannemora,  mixing 
as  they  do  with  the  criminal  insane,  are  in  constant  danger. 
Dr.  Lamb  was  nearly  killed  a  few  years  ago,  and  Dr. 
Lloyd  of  the  Long  Island  Hospital  was  assassinated  by 
a  paranoiac  named  Prendergast  who  had  before  his  com- 
mitment been  arrested  for  writing  erotic  letters  to  the 
singer  Lillian  Russell  and  others.  Dr.  John  P.  Gray,  the 
well-known  head  of  the  Utica  Asylum,  was  attacked  by 
a  lunatic  with  an  imaginary  grievance,  and  his  death  was 
undoubtedly  due  to  the  original  wounds.  One  of  the  sad- 
dest American  cases  was  the  assassination  of  Dr.  Brigham, 
of  Canandaigua,  many  years  ago. 

No  one  who  goes  much  into  court,  or  ever  commits  the 
insane  to  institutions,  can  help  incurring  their  displeasure 

and  revenge.    In  the  year  1878  I  saw  a  Dr.  G ,  who 

lived  in  a  Western  city,  and  who  there  got  into  trouble 
with  the  authorities.  The  doctor  as  the  result  of  hard 
study  lost  his  wits  and  developed  a  paranoia  with  erotic^ 

373 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

religious  and  querulent  delusions.  He  was  the  founder  of 
a  new  religion  called  the  "Order  of  the  Starred  Cross," 
and  did  a  number  of  eccentric  things  which  brought  him 
into  collision  with  the  police  and  his  landlord.  The  result 
was  his  arrest  for  firing  a  pistol  at  the  latter,  who  would 

not  sign  his  lease  until  threatened  with  death.    G was 

bailed  out  by  a  Hebrew  friend,  and  subsequently  expanded 
his  religion  sufficiently  to  admit  this  race  to  favour.  In 
his  curious  way  he  wrote  to  me: 

"Now  you  will  notice  the  contrast  of  treatment  I  have  re- 
ceived from  Jews  and  Christians — an  equal  stranger  to  both.  I 
tried  Christianity  under  the  old  cross,  and  found  but  half  a 
Christ  and  lost  salvation.  I  do  not  relinquish  Christianity  but 
in  keeping  it  insist  on  changes,  and  don't  want  Salvation  without 
the  Jews,     When  I  left  home  I  promised  to  the  Jews,  through 

my  friend,  Dr.  R ,  my  body,  soul  and  powers.     I  shall  do 

what  I  can  to  my  purpose  and  whether  the  Jews  accept  my  offer 
or  not  remains  to  be  seen.  If  so,  I  shall  unite  the  Jews  with 
Christianity  in  flesh  and  blood  under  the  new  cross.  As  I  told 
you,  our  name  is  Christians  of  the  Starred  Cross." 

He  was  brought  to  New  York  and  committed  by  me  to 
an  institution  at  Flushing,  N.  Y.,  and  of  course  began  at 
once  to  harbour  the  most  bitter  resentment.  This  did  not 
trouble  me  so  long  as  he  was  confined,  but  one  day  he 
escaped,  and  in  the  afternoon  I  received  this  laconic  tele- 
gram from  the  Superintendent,  Dr.  Barstow:     "G 

has  escaped  and  has  taken  his  razor.  He  is  on  his  way  to 
your  office."  I  suppose  his  new-found  freedom  diverted 
his  thoughts  of  vengeance,  for  he  proceeded  at  once  to 
his  Western  home,  and  I  never  heard  of  him  again. 

Threatening  letters  received  by  experts  from  the  fur- 
tive or  violent  insane  are  usually  quite  numerous  during 
any  murder  trial,  and  are  not  equalled  by  those  of  the  so- 

374. 


THE  DANGEROUS  INSANE 

called  "Black  Hand"  in  ingenuity  or  mendacity.  They 
are  all  anonymous,  often  made  up  of  individual  characters 
cut  out  of  advertisements,  and  sometimes  are  illustrated. 
One  lunatic  in  Virginia  deluges  me  with  vituperative  tele- 
grams whenever  he  sees  my  name  in  the  newspapers. 

Deranged  persons  who  are  dangerous  to  themselves  as 
well  as  others  are  not  always  the  noisy  ones.  Sometimes 
they  are  in  most  ways  so  self-possessed  and  intelligent  as 
to  deceive  those  about  them,  and  as  a  rule  no  steps  are 
taken  for  their  detention.  This  is  particularly  true  of 
the  suicidal  examples,  especially  those  who  belong  to  fami- 
lies noted  for  a  continuous  history  of  felo  de  se.  In  one 
of  these  families  three  persons  killed  themselves  in  one 
generation ;  four  in  the  second,  and  three  others  were  con- 
fined in  asylums;  while  in  the  third  generation,  which 
was  a  large  one,  at  least  six  persons  have  made  away 
with  themselves  and  other  members  are  now  inmates  of 
asylums  or  are  weak-minded.  The  stock  bids  fair  to  run 
out,  it  is  to  be  hoped.  Most  of  those  I  have  known  were 
charming  people  of  good  social  position  and  culture. 

Some  years  ago  I  met  a  lady  who  was  in  every  way 
delightful,  and  beyond  a  slight  melancholy  there  was  noth- 
ing apparently  wrong;  yet  the  day  before  I  saw  her  she 
had  tried  to  poison  herself  with  chloral,  but  fortunately 
was  stopped  in  time.  In  response  to  my  inquiries  as  to 
the  motive,  if  any,  that  existed,  she  replied  that  she  had 
no  reason  to  do  away  with  herself,  no  sorrow,  losses,  dis- 
appointments or  bodily  illness — only  when  the  causeless 
impulse  came  she  could  not  resist  it.  There  was  nothing 
to  be  suggested  except  commitment,  and  to  this  she 
agreed ;  yet  many  would  have  considered  her  incarceration* 
an  injustice,  and  to  send  so  perfectly  sane  a  person  to  a 
sanitarium  appeared  cruel.  The  next  day  she  threw  her- 
self from  her  window,  being  killed  instantly,  the  inception 

375 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

of  the  suicidal  idea  being  so  rapid  that  though  she  had 
two  trained  nurses  no  one  could  get  to  her  in  time  to 
save  her. 

The  necessity  for  alertness  upon  the  part  of  the  insane 
nurse  can  hardly  be  exaggerated,  for  the  cunning  of  the 
would-be  suicide  and  his  or  her  capacity  for  inventing  or 
finding  a  means  of  self-destruction  is  sometimes  incredible. 
A  patient  has  been  known  to  strangle  himself  under  the 
bedclothes  when  the  nurse  has  been  sitting  beside  him  ut- 
terly unaware  of  what  was  happening,  yet  it  is  the  experi- 
ence of  all  competent  alienists  that  the  subject  is  always 
far  more  safe  in  an  institution  than  at  home  when  there  is 
any  such  danger. 

The  queer  freaks  of  the  insane  who  for  no  evident  pur- 
pose swallow  glass,  nails,  needles,  hair  and  other  substances 
are  well  known  to  most  of  us — and  though  these  things 
are  usually  done  without  any  idea  of  suicide,  yet  the  con- 
sequences are,  to  say  the  least,  dangerous.  Some  years 
ago  I  saw  a  woman  named  Helen  Miller,  who  committed 
thefts  at  doctors'  offices,  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Asy- 
lum for  Insane  Criminals  at  Auburn,  and  afterwards 
turned  up  at  the  Insane  Asylum  at  Blackwell's  Island. 
Though  feigning  a  general  disease,  she  was  the  subject  of 
hysteria  and  indulged  in  a  system  of  self -mutilation.  At 
various  times  she  thrust  pieces  of  glass,  splinters  and  other 
things  into  various  parts  of  her  body.  Her  attending 
physician  removed  no  less  than  ninety-four  pieces  of  glass, 
thirty-four  splinters  of  wood,  two  tacks,  four  shoe  nails, 
one  pin  and  one  needle  at  different  times.  While  not 
then  legally  insane,  I  believe  her  to  have  been  deranged. 
In  one  of  my  cases,  when  death  had  resulted  from  the 
ingestion  of  the  extraordinary  diet,  there  were  removed 
from  the  stomach  nails,  pieces  of  glass,  door  keys,  collar 
buttons,  safety  pins,  small  pebbles  and  a  variety  of  other 

376 


THE  DANGEROUS  INSANE 

strange  things.  Other  patients  have  been  known  to  drive 
large  needles  into  their  bodies.  To  this  class  of  cases 
belong  those  who  under  religious  or  other  delusions  mu- 
tilate themselves. 

About  twenty  years  ago  I  was  called  to  see  a  patient  in 
the  country  who  was  a  bigoted  and  narrow-minded  man 
belonging  to  a  psychopathic  family.  He  had  deliberately 
placed  his  left  hand  upon  the  chopping  block  back  of  his 
house  and  with  one  blow  of  a  keen  axe  nearly  amputated 
it.  Subsequently  he  almost  bled  to  death,  and  would  have 
done  so  were  it  not  for  the  arrival  of  his  sane  and  resource- 
ful wife,  who  had  sufficient  presence  of  mind  to  apply  an 
emergency  tourniquet.  When  asked  why  he  had  done 
this  thing  he  replied  that  he  had  been  tortured  by  the 
fear  that  he  had  defrauded  his  children  and  stolen  their 
securities,  and  that  as  the  scripture  said,  "If  thy  hand 
offends  thee,  cut  it  off,"  he  had  done  so.  Many  of  these 
cases  have  fallen  under  my  observation  from  time  to  time, 
among  them  that  of  an  ascetic  clergyman  who,  suffering 
from  the  realisation  of  early  immoralities  conamitted  when 
very  young,  inflicted  upon  himself  a  terrible  mutilation 
as  the  result  of  an  obsession,  which  left  him  in  a  condi- 
tion akin  to  that  found  so  extensively  among  the  male 
retainers  of  the  late  Dowager  Empress  of  China  by  the 
medical  missionaries  who  were  professionally  summoned 
to  the  Forbidden  Palace  at  Pekin. 

The  subtle  horror  of  the  following  case  illustrates  an- 
other form  of  peril  through  the  unhinging  of  the  mind  of 
a  medical  man.  The  sudden  impulse  that  causes  an  in- 
sane engineer  to  wreck  a  train,  or  a  barber  to  cut  the 
throat  of  the  man  he  is  shaving  are  not  impossibilities, 
for  they  have  both  occurred;  but  it  is  strange  indeed  to 
find  a   distinguished  surgeon  imperilling  the  safety  of 

others  through  his  mad  ideas.    Dr.  H was  always  an 

377 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

eccentric  man — an  inventor,  who  was  quarrelsome  and 
resented  the  criticism  of  his  fellow  physicians.  He  read 
strange  papers  before  the  medical  societies,  and  exploited 
impossible  and  crazy  operations  which  were  the  fruit  of 
his  deranged  brain.  He  was  a  powerful  and  masterful 
man  and  his  violent  temper  was  often  shown  in  physical 
assaults.  Finally  his  pitiable  mental  condition  became 
apparent,  and  his  wife,  who  had  left  her  house,  returned 
to  see  if  she  could  not  protect  and  manage  him.  There 
was  an  emotional  reconciliation,  and  she  apparently  had 
no  reason  to  regret  her  home-coming.  Next  to  the  office 
was  a  new  operating  room,  and  Mrs.  H.  was  induced  to 
go  in  for  the  purpose  of  being  shown  a  new  table.  No 
sooner  had  she  entered  than  the  doctor-husband  shut  and 
locked  the  doors  and  announced  that  he  proposed  to  op- 
erate upon  her  then  and  there.  She  was  a  perfectly  sound 
woman  and  did  not  need  his  help.  In  vain  did  she 
protest,  but  his  insane  sophistry  and  the  incoherent  medi- 
cal lecture  in  which  he  indulged  opened  her  eyes  to  the 
horrible  prospect  of  the  use  of  the  knife  by  a  madman. 
Apparently  assenting,  and  temporising  until  he  could  get 
a  friend  to  give  the  anesthetic,  she  telephoned  for  her 
brother,  who  with  assistance  took  charge  of  the  furious 
subject;  but  the  latter,  armed  with  a  keen  knife,  kept 
them  at  bay  until  he  was  finally  overpowered. 

The  improper  liberation  of  dangerous  insane  people  as 
the  result  of  habeas  corpus  proceedings  is  constantly  going 
on,  the  action  being  usually  brought  by  some  meddle- 
some individual  or  society  who  know  nothing  about  the 
real  facts.  Before  an  ordinary  jury  the  cunning  subject 
makes  so  good  a  showing  that  he  is  turned  loose.  I  have 
the  notes  of  many  such  cases.  In  an  adjoining  county 
within  a  comparatively  short  time  four  or  five  people  were 
discharged,  one  after  the  other.    Almost  immediately  the 

378 


THE  DANGEROUS  INSANE 

newspapers  were  filled  with  the  subsequent  histories  of 
these  paranoiacs.  One  assaulted  his  wife  with  an  axe; 
another  committed  suicide  by  jumping  from  the  Washing- 
ton bridge,  and  all  the  others  did  some  outrageous  thing 
which  not  only  led  to  their  being  deserted  by  the  kind 
friends  who  were  so  active  in  getting  their  release,  but  to 
their  recommitment  after  arrest. 


879 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

CAPITAL   PUNISHMENT 

An  Experience  in  Court — I  Visit  Sing  Sing  Prison — ^Witness  an 
Electrocution — A  Hanging  in  the  Old  "Tombs"  Prison — The  At- 
titude of  the  Condemned — The  Experience  of  Roland  B.  Moli- 
neux — Occupations  of  Prisoners  In  the  Death  House — Substi- 
tutes for  the  Old  Method  of  Execution — The  Lethal  Chamber — 
Is  Electrocution  Successful? — The  Taylor  and  Other  Cases — 
An  Automatic  Gallows — Unpardonable  Publicity  in  Executions 
— Does  Capital  Punishment  Prevent  Murder? 

Several  years  ago  I  was  called  to  testify  in  behalf  of  a 
street  railway  company  in  Brooklyn,  engaged  in  defend- 
ing a  suit  brought  by  the  widow  of  a  passenger  who  had 
been  killed  by  the  passage  of  an  electric  current  through 
his  body  as  the  result  of  some  alleged  defect  in  insulation 
of  the  trolley  connection.  I  had  given  much  expert  tes- 
timony, theoretical  and  otherwise,  in  my  direct  examina- 
tion, for  I  had  had  much  experience  in  the  effect  of  dan- 
gerous currents  of  electricity  upon  the  human  body,  and 
had  written  a  book  over  thirty  years  before  which  was 
then  an  authority.  Whatever  good  eiFect  my  testimony 
produced  upon  the  jury  was  evidently  minimised  by  the 
first  question  put  to  me  by  my  friend  Herbert  Smyth,  a 
clever  and  quick-witted  lawyer  who  appeared  for  the  other 
side.  It  was  this:  "Doctor,  have  you  ever  seen  a  man 
killed  by  a  strong  electric  current?"  To  which  I  was 
forced  to  reply  in  the  negative. 

As  the  result  of  this  experience  I  determined  at  the 

380 


'the  chaik' 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

first  opportunity  to  qualify  myself  for  any  subsequent 
appearance  upon  the  witness  stand  in  any  other  possible 
case  of  this  kind,  and  within  a  few  months  I  was  invited 
to  attend  an  electrocution  at  the  State's  Prison  at  Ossining, 
the  hour  being  iEixed  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning.  After 
a  rather  sleepless  night  at  a  small  local  hotel,  I  went  at 
the  break  of  dawn  to  the  low-lying  grey  prison,  a  mile 
away.  The  winter  morning  was  cold  and  still,  but  the 
sharp  snap  of  the  exhaust  from  the  engine  ahead,  prepar- 
ing to  supply  the  terrible  force  which  was  to  crush  out 
the  life  of  the  wretched  murderer,  reached  my  ears  as  I 
walked  along  the  snow-crusted  road.  In  the  prison  office 
I  found  several  silent  and  decidedly  nervous  men  who, 
like  myself,  were  to  be  present  as  the  guests  of  the  tall, 
cadaverous  warden ;  who,  after  the  last  late-comer  arrived, 
beckoned  us  to  follow  him  out  and  around  the  corner  to 
an  insignificant  brick  building.  As  we  entered  most  of 
the  small  room  was  in  darkness,  but  in  the  centre  was  an 
ugly,  cumbersome  wooden  chair  upon  which  was  placed 
a  number  of  glowing  electric  bulbs,  all  harmless  enough  in 
themselves,  but  horrible  in  their  suggestion  that  their  re- 
sistance was  typical  of  what  was  in  store  for  the  unfortu- 
nate who  was  later  to  take  their  place.  The  ugliness  of 
the  chair  and  its  business-like  character  were  striking,  for 
no  such  piece  of  furniture  could  be  used  for  anything  but 
torture,  and  it  forcibly  called  up  the  old  wood  cuts  of  the 
Inquisition  that  I  collect.  As  I  entered  the  door  there 
was  a  semi-circle  of  absorbed,  silent  men  seated  behind  a 
rope  stretched  across  the  end  of  the  room — with  a  grim 
suggestion  of  a  dead  minstrel  troupe  without  an  "inter- 
locutor" or  the  end  men.  In  the  centre  of  the  room  were 
business-like  doctors  and  the  warden,  who  tried  the  straps 
and  patted  the  chair  as  if  it  were  a  living  thing,  while 
dodging  behind  a  switch-board  was  an  insignificant-look- 

381 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

ing  little  man  who  tried  his  apparatus  with  seeming  en- 
joyment, peering  at  the  chair  and  lamps  occasionally, 
until  finally  everything  was  in  order.  Presently  a  slight 
noise  was  heard  at  the  north  end  of  the  room,  and  through 
a  small  door  came  a  wretched  bareheaded  man  in  a  shirt 
and  trousers  only,  supported  on  either  side  by  two  priests 
who  mumbled  prayers  with  him  and  placed  in  his  hands 
a  crucifix.  After  being  rapidly  strapped  in  the  chair, 
one  electrode  was  fastened  upon  his  shaven  head  and  the 
other  was  affixed  to  the  calves  of  his  legs.  The  tall  warden 
then  gave  what  was  to  us  an  imperceptible  signal;  the 
executioner  pulled  his  knifcrswitch  open,  and  the  con- 
demned sank,  and,  after  a  general  convulsion,  became  a 
limp  thing  and  had  apparently  lost  in  stature.  Coinci- 
dentally  he  raised  his  crucifix,  which  was  held  in  his  right 
hand,  to  his  lips.  The  doctors  examined  his  pupils,  and 
after  some  discussion  it  was  decided  to  apply  the  current 
a  second  time,  which  was  evidently  sufficient,  for  the  pu- 
pillary reflexes  were  lost,  and  the  man  pronounced  dead.* 
It  was  but  a  matter  of  moments  for  the  attendants  to 
unlimber  and  take  him  to  an  adjoining  room,  where  he 
was  stripped  and  left  for  the  autopsy  which  was  to  follow 
in  a  short  time. 

*  In  speaking  of  another  man  whose  death  seemed  needlessly  pro- 
longed, a  newspaper  said:  "The  current  was  applied  five  times  be- 
fore the  physicians  pronounced  Ferraro  dead.  He  was  one  of  the 
hardest  men  to  kill  ever  encountered  in  Sing  Sing  prison.  The  first 
application  of  the  current  was  given  at  1740  volts;  this  was  maintained 
for  seven  seconds,  when  it  was  reduced  250  volts  for  one  minute  and 
eight  seconds.  The  subsequent  applications  of  the  current  passed 
through  the  body  for  nine,  thirteen,  three  and  five  seconds.  After  the 
third  application,  when  the  officers  thought  surely  the  man  was  dead, 
there  was  a  noticeable  pulsation  of  the  arteries,  but  after  two  more 
applications  of  the  current,  the  man  was  pronounced  dead." — The 
Evening  Sun,  February  26th,  1900. 

382 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

All  this  had  scarcely  happened  before  another  slight 
disturbance  attended  the  entry  of  a  fresh  victim — this 
time  it  was  a  burly  German  who  had  strangled  his  wife 
in  a  fit  of  jealous  rage  a  year  previously,  in  the  city  of 
New  York.  His  excursion  from  "the  little  door"  to  the 
chair  was  quite  as  striking  an  evidence  of  torpor  and 
indifference  as  that  of  the  degenerate  Italian  whose  still 
warm  body  at  that  moment  was  awaiting  the  knives  of  the 
pathologists.  This  time  the  killing  was  more  difficult,  and 
when  the  warden  said  to  the  electrician,  "You  had  better 
give  him  another,"  the  increased  current  was  sufficient  to 
form  a  tiny  arc  beneath  the  rim  of  the  head  electrode,  so 
that  the  smell  of  burned  flesh  and  hair  was  distressingly 
perceptible  and  horrid.  It  was  not  long  before  my  nervous 
system  and  stomach  rebelled  and  I  hurried  to  the  cool  outer 
air  and  left  Sing  Sing  as  soon  as  I  could. 

Although  I  have  seen  many  dreadful  things  during  the 
past  forty  years,  I  don't  think  any  other  has  ever  raised 
my  gorge  as  this  had  done,  and  for  weeks  my  dreams  were 
filled  with  the  details  of  that  half  hour.  I  had  seen  men 
hung  years  before  in  the  yard  of  the  Tombs — and  for  the 
most  part  these  executions  were  solemn  affairs.  Even 
the  ward  politician  and  political  heeler  who  had  "gota 
ticket"  were  awed,  and  reverently  followed  the  prayer  of 
the  black-robed  priests,  and  everything  seemed  to  be  de- 
cent and  in  order ;  meanwhile  scores  of  white  pigeons  flut- 
tered on  the  heads  of  the  condemned  men  or  even  alighted 
on  the  top  of  the  scaffold.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the 
method  of  electrical  execution  did  not  give  this  impression, 
and  there  was  a  more  or  less  decided  feeling  that  every  one 
thought  more  of  the  success  of  the  procedure  than  that 
a  human  being,  no  matter  how  wicked,  was  being  sent 
out  of  the  world  with  so  short  a  shrift.  I  was  impressed 
on  this  occasion,  as  I  have  been  on  others,  with  the  fact 

383 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

that  the  condemned  criminal — at  least  so  far  as  his  actions 
are  concerned — does  not  suffer  as  might  be  supposed, 
and  by  a  wise  provision  of  nature  becomes  at  the  last  so 
indifferent  to  his  fate  that  he  rather  welcomes  the  noose 
or  the  current.  I  can  recall  only  a  few  exceptions —  chiefly 
among  young  people.  When  three  brothers  who  had  com- 
mitted a  murder  at  Hudson  were  electrocuted  a  few 
years  ago,  their  terror  was  pitiable,  and  they  resisted  till 
the  last  moment.  Others  have  gone  to  their  death  pro- 
testing their  innocence,  like  Carlyle  Harris,  the  wife- 
poisoner,  or  exhibited  actual  insanity  as  did  Czolgosz.  The 
long  months  in  the  death  house,  after  the  Court  of  Appeals 
refuses  to  interfere,  does  the  work,  and  the  gruesome 
camaraderie  of  the  many  others  likewise  awaiting  their 
fate  minimises  the  awful  terrors  of  the  last  scenes.  The 
man  without  hope  often  grows  actually  fat,  gaining  from 
ten  to  thirty  pounds  in  weight. 

Roland  B.  Molineux,  who  was  twice  tried  for  criminal 
poisoning  and  finally  acquitted,  spent  many  months  in 
the  death  chamber,  and  graphically  describes  the  dreadful 
anticipation  of  the  occupants  of  its  ten  cells  which  are 
always  brilliantly  lighted  in  the  daytime  by  glass  sky- 
lights and  at  night  by  gas  and  electric  light.  "It  is,"  he 
said,  "like  living,  eating,  sleeping,  and  bathing  in  a  search- 
light. It  is  like  being  alive,  yet  buried  in  a  glass  coffin." 
The  pursuits  of  the  doomed  men  are  varied.  They  play 
checkers  upon  home-made  boards,  calling  the  moves  to 
each  other;  sing,  learn  new  languages,  and  read.  One 
even  raised  onions,  using  discarded  tobacco  as  soil,  in 
which  they  flourished.  One  German  trained  the  mice  he 
lured  to  his  cell  with  bread  crumbs  and  made  pets  of 
them  as  Silvio  Pellico  did  with  his  bird.  Every  one  knew 
when  the  number  was  reduced  by  the  passage  of  a  victim 
through  the  little  door  beyond,  and  one  man  became  vio- 

384 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

lently  insane  as  the  result  of  the  suspense  and  horror. 

I  remember  once  a  terrible  scene  at  the  City  Prison 
when  three  negroes,  who  had  murdered  a  peddler  at  New 
Rochelle,  were  executed  together,  which  is  an  exception 
to  what  I  have  said.  Neither  of  them  exhibited  any 
cowardice  when  led  into  the  square,  but  after  the  rope 
that  held  the  sand  bag  counterweight  was  cut,  and  their 
bodies  shot  up,  the  younger  prisoner,  who  was  in  the  mid- 
dle, contrived  to  raise  his  legs  and  entwine  them  about  the 
neck  of  the  man  next  to  him ;  so  that  the  knot  was  shifted 
and  for  a  time  he  was  conscious.  It  was  not  long,  how- 
ever, before  he  changed  his  position  and  submitted  to  the 
inevitable.    In  one  way  it  was  a  suicide. 

When  Mr.  Elbridge  Gerry  and  other  philanthropists 
some  years  ago  objected  to  hanging,  and  wrote  to  some 
of  us  for  suggestions  that  we  should  name  a  better  sub- 
stitute, I  advocated  the  lethal  chamber,  which  is  a  hu- 
mane and  inexpensive  method  of  execution  without  the 
attendant  publicity.  My  idea  was  to  sentence  the  prisoner, 
as  is  now  the  case,  to  be  put  to  death  in  a  certain  week. 
The  death  chamber  might  be  very  readily  fitted  with  pipes 
through  which  carbon  dioxide  or  monoxide  should  be  in- 
troduced at  night  to  the  unsuspecting  condemned  man, 
who  would  never  awaken  from  his  last  sleep,  and  have 
none  of  the  horrid  fear  of  the  actual  execution.  The  ab- 
solute painlessness  of  this  death  and  its  freedom  from 
preliminary  horror  recommends  it  strongly.  Charcoal  gas 
poisoning,  which  is  so  popular  in  France,  and  so  generally 
used  there,  is  the  same  thing.  It  is  inexpensive,  absolutely 
certain,  and  no  complicated  apparatus  is  required.  All 
that  is  needed  is  a  furnace,  or  receptacle  for  liquefied  car- 
bonic oxide,  which  is  connected  with  a  hidden  aperture 
in  the  cell  of  the  condemned.  When  the  prisoner  is  asleep 
this  cell  can  be  hermetically  sealed  at  the  appointed  time' 

S85 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

in  a  noiseless  way,  and  the  gas  valve  turned  on.  As  car- 
bonic acid  gas  is  heavier  than  air,  it  of  course  falls  to  the 
lower  part  of  the  room  and  engulfs  the  sleeping  prisoner. 

The  more  dramatic  and  complicated  method  was,  how- 
ever, adopted,  and  in  inexperienced  hands  is  capable  of 
great  misapplication  and  harm.  In  the  early  days  of 
electrocution  in  this  state,  at  least  one  man  was  half  killed, 
subsequently  restored,  and  taken  back  to  the  chair  "to  get 
a  heavier  dose,"  which  was  sufficient  to  comply  with  the 
law. 

On  July  27th,  1893,  a  murderer  named  William  G. 
Taylor  was  electrocuted  at  the  Auburn  prison.  A  cur- 
rent of  1,260  volts  was  turned  on  at  a  given  signal,  and 
with  a  crash  the  legs  shot  forward  and  upward,  tearing 
the  standard  and  entire  front  from  the  chair.  For  52  sec- 
onds this  condition  was  sustained  and  the  current  was 
shut  off.  For  twenty  seconds  the  condemned  man  ap- 
peared to  be  dead,  but  then  he  gasped.  The  executioner 
tried  again  to  turn  on  the  current,  but  there  was  some 
hitch.  Within  half  a  minute  the  pulse  beats  reappeared, 
faintly  at  first  but  distinctly  later,  and  respiration  became 
evident.  The  breathing  was  stertorous  and  the  subject 
resembled  a  patient  in  an  apoplectic  state.  He  next  moved 
both  hands,  arms  and  legs  and  rolled  from  side  to  side. 
Morphine  in  large  doses  was  given  hypodermically  and, 
this  failing,  the  man  was  chloroformed.  He  objected  at 
first,  but  was  carried  to  the  electric  chair  and  received 
a  current  with  a  voltage  of  1,260,  which  finally  killed  him. 
This  was  one  of  the  earlier  cases  and  the  query  immedi- 
ately arises  whether  to-day,  in  places  where  electrocution 
is  adopted,  there  is  not  sometimes  bungling  of  which  noth- 
ing is  said.  It  does  not  appear  that  at  Sing  Sing  any 
such  sickening  acc^'dents  have  happened. 

While  I  do  not  wish  to  make  an  unprovable  and  per- 

386 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

haps  unjust  charge,  I  do  believe  it  possible  that  there 
have  been  occasions  where  the  causation  of  actual  death 
is  a  matter  of  doubt. 

Of  course  the  autopsy  made  within  two  hours  will  settle 
this  question,  but  if  the  electrical  current  is  to  be  used 
the  public  officials  should  avail  themselves  of  the  teach- 
ings of  modern  physiologists  who  have  shown  that  the 
passage  of  a  sufficient  current  directly  through  the  heart 
is  certain  to  kill,  and  this  they  have  not  yet  done.  A 
perusal  of  the  many  reports  of  people  who  have  lived 
even  after  the  receipt  of  currents  of  enormous  voltage 
and  amperage  suggests  the  important  idea  that  the  pres- 
ent method  of  application  of  the  electrodes  is  defective. 
Ai'sonoval  has  reported  cases  where  currents  of  5,000 
voltage  have  by  some  system  of  surface  connection  passed 
out  of  the  body  without  doing  any  great  harm.*  The 
immediate  effect  is  in  such  cases  the  production  of  burns 
and  unconsciousness,  and  in  a  few  a  trance-like  condition 
has  remained  in  a  way  resembling  "hj^sterical  catalepsy," 
which  is  often  mistaken  for  actual  death. 

The  late  Dr.  Francis  Harris  of  Boston,  who  was  for 
many  years  the  local  Medical  Examiner,  and  whose  duty 
compelled  him  to  be  present  at  electrical  executions,  wrote 
me  before  he  died  about  his  strong  abhorrence  of  this 
form  of  punishment ;  he  believed  it  brutal  and  unscientific, 

*  Peter  Yanarino,  a  fourteen-year-old  schoolboy,  was  playing  with 
a  piece  of  wire  which  he  dangled  on  the  cover  of  the  third  rail  on 
the  tracks  of  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  in  the  Bronx.  Finally 
the  wire  hit  the  rail  and  "a  blue  flame  shot  out  of  the  boy's  hands. 
He  bent  his  face  forward  and  the  flame  ran  from  his  hands  to  his 
head,  taking  all  the  hair  off  and  burning  his  head,  neck  and  face 
black."  With  great  difficulty  he  was  extricated  and  the  contact  broken 
by  a  companion  who  also  received  a  severe  shock.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  rail  carries  a  current  of  11,000  volts.  Yet,  strange  to  say, 
the  boy  recovered. 

387 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  that  it  should  be  abolished,  and  said  that  in  every 
case  in  which  he  officially  appeared  he  feared  some  dread- 
ful miscarriage  would  occur. 

The  inventive  genius  of  New  England  has  been  ex- 
ercised to  make  more  merciful  and  successful  the  use  of 
hanging,  which  in  many  ways  is  better  than  electrocu- 
tion. My  attention  was  directed  in  1894  to  an  "auto- 
matic gallows"  devised  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Con- 
necticut State  Prison  at  Weathersfield.  This  consisted  of 
a  platform  upon  which  the  condemned  man  stood,  con- 
nected with  a  hidden  system  of  complicated  levers  and 
heavy  weights.  The  ingenious  part  of  the  apparatus  was 
a  small  receptacle  filled  with  gun-shot  which  were  grad- 
ually released,  allowing  a  superimposed  light  iron  weight 
to  release  the  levers  which  actuated  a  greater  one  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds — quite  enough  to  do  what  was 
required.  The  shot-receptacle  emptied  itself  in  forty  sec- 
onds, a  period  of  time  which  was  recorded  by  a  grim- 
looking  dial  and  hand,  or  the  contents  could  be  released 
en  masse  J  producing  an  immediate  effect.  It  was  copied 
after  an  "automatic  water  gallows"  in  Colorado;  but  as 
the  life  of  the  condemned  man  in  one  instance  I  heard  of 
had  been  snuffed  out  despite  the  efforts  to  stop  another 
machine  when  a  reprieve  was  on  its  way,  this  gruesome 
possibility  was  avoided  by  the  use  of  a  foot  lever  which 
enabled  the  warden  to  check  the  operation  of  the  shot  box 
at  any  time,  avoiding  such  a  deplorable  eventuality. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  element'  of  theatrical  display 
were  indispensable  to  public  execution  in  this  country 
alone,  for  abroad  nowadays  the  taking  off  of  the  con- 
demned is  conducted  with  secrecy  and  decency,  especially 
in  Germany  and  England.  It  is  only  a  year  or  two  ago 
that  the  newspapers  were  filled  with  accounts  of  special 
trains  being  run  to  an  execution  in  the  southwestern  part 

388 


AN    AUTOMATIC    GALLOWS 


( A )  The  platform  upon  which  the  condemned 
stands.  {B)  Cylinder  containing  fiftj^  pounds 
of   shot  with   an   adjusting  valve   at  its  base. 

(C)  Lever  holding  weight  on  right  side  of 
post,   and  connected  by  a  cord  with  the  dial. 

(D)  Weight  of  306i/>  pounds  Avhich  when  re- 
leased falls  and  tightens  the  rope  about  the 
neck  of  the  condemned.  {E)  Cord  connecting 
the  lever  with  the  dial.  (F)  Beam  over  which 
rope  passes  upon  rollers.  (G)  Cage  looking 
through  north  door  of  execution  house.  A  par- 
tition extends  across  the  room  at  the  east  end 
to  shut  off  the  apparatus  from  the  view  of  the 
spectators 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

of  the  United  States,  and  just  such  hysterical  scenes  were 
enacted  as  might  have  occurred  in  the  Place  de  la  Roquette 
in  the  flourishing  days  of  the  guillotine — yet  I  doubt  if 
there  was  then  the  same  vulgarity  and  heartlessness  that 
now  exist  among  our  own  countrymen  at  such  a  hang- 
ing, or  the  occasional  burnings  which  too  often  occur. 

Except  upon  extraordinary  occasions,  I  believe  capital 
punishment  can  do  no  good,  for  most  murder  is  committed 
by  individuals  who  are  degenerates  or  insane  criminals, 
and  isolation  with  sterilisation  and  hard  work  would  serve 
the  same  purpose.  In  Italy  the  plan  of  utilising  small 
islands,  like  Ponza,  off  the  coast,  where  condemned  mur- 
derers support  themselves  and  are  of  use  to  the  State, 
works  very  well. 

There  is  a  species  of  savagery  in  the  cruel  and  vengeful 
life-imprisonment  in  a  dungeon  in  political  cases  which  is 
a  virtual  immuration,  the  result  being  a  quickly  induced 
insanity  and  speedy  death.  To  those  advanced  criminolo- 
gists who  are  interested  in  eugenics,  the  idea  of  capital 
punishment,  which,  after  all,  is  but  a  part  of  the  vengeful 
Mosaic  law,  is  to-day  in  disfavour,  as  it  deserves  to  be. 


389 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

ABUSES   AND   ACHIEVEMENTS 

The  Condition  of  the  Insane  in  the  Early  Seventies — Bad  Manage- 
ment of  Asylums — Insane  in  the  Poor  Houses — Lunatics  in 
Chains — Sent  to  an  Asylum  in  a  Box — Brutal  Attendants — My 
Efforts  to  Effect  Reform — Introduction  of  the  School  System — 
Careless  Commitments — The  Wendell  Case — The  Other  Side  of 
the  Picture — The  Evils  of  Expert  Testimony — The  Remedy — A 
New  Proceeding  in  the  Schneider  Case — The  Social  System — 
Psychopathic  Hospitals — A  Scheme  for  the  Determination  of 
Vocational  Fitness. 

At  about  the  time  I  graduated  in  medicine  the  wretched 
condition  of  the  insane  and  feeble  minded  was  being  gen- 
erally recognised.  Although  some  of  the  New  England 
asylums  were  well  conducted,  as  were  one  or  two  in  Penn- 
sylvania, where  the  influence  of  Dr.  Isaac  Ray  had  made 
itself  felt,  there  were  many  others  throughout  the  United 
States  which  deserved  rigorous  investigation  and  correc- 
tion. Too  often  the  political  considerations  in  the  manage- 
ment were  the  only  ones  that  prevailed,  and  as  there  was  a 
Board  which  was  distinct  from  the  medical  control,  and  as 
the  former  not  only  often  contained  a  number  of  scheming 
and  dishonest  men,  as  well  as  others  in  league  with  the 
politicians,  many  ugly  stories  were  afloat  in  regard  to 
peculation  and  dishonesty,  and  investigations  were  often 
urged.  Of  course,  as  the  result  of  all  this,  the  poor  patients 
were  the  sufferers.  The  condition  of  the  defective  pau- 
pers was  especially  deplorable,  for  idiots  were  everywhere 

390 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

treated  as  animals,  and  I  have  not  only  seen  barren  cells 
in  the  open  air,  situated  next  to  the  County  Poor  Houses, 
but  some  of  these  wretched  creatures  were  actually  in 
chains.  There  was  no  system  of  examination  that 
amounted  to  much;  they  were  simply  cared  for  as  public 
charges,  getting  little  to  eat  and  the  barest  comforts,  being 
exposed  to  severe  cold  in  winter,  often  being  given  only 
a  little  straw  to  lie  upon,  and  a  thin  and  dirty  blanket, 
and  sometimes  not  even  the  latter.  The  sanitary  con- 
veniences were  of  the  most  rudimentary  kind.  I  also  found 
that  when  a  farmer  had  an  idiot  son  or  daughter  they 
would  usually  be.  confined  in  an  out-house  if  they  did  not 
possess  enough  intelligence  to  work.  They  were  often 
beaten  and  left  in  indescribable  filth  and  rags  until  they 
died,  frequently  from  exposure.  The  New  York  Times 
is  my  authority  for  a  comparatively  recent  case  which 
illustrates  what  I  have  just  said  regarding  the  ignorance 
and  cruelty  in  remote  places,  and  is  but  one  of  the  instances 
that  have  come  to  my  notice. 

"Pittsburgh,  August  6th.  Harry  Munshower,  aged  thirty-six, 
a  patient  at  Dixmont  Insane  Asylum,  died  this  morning  after 
being  in  the  institution  less  than  four  weeks. 

"Munshower  was  shipped  to  Dixmont  from  his  home  in  Indiana 
County  in  a  rough  box,  bound  hand  and  foot,  with  a  small  grating 
as  the  only  opening. 

"Munshower  lived  twenty  years  chained  in  a  room  at  his 
father's  farm,  and  his  existence  was  not  known  until  his  father 
died  in  July.  The  County  Commissioners  put  the  man  in  a  box 
because  he  had  never  worn  clothes  and  tore  from  his  body  the 
garments  the  Commissioners  put  on  him. 

"He  never  made  a  sound  after  he  arrived  at  Dixmont,  and 
weighed  only  eighty-six  pounds  when  he  died,  although  he  weighed 
nearly  200  less  than  a  month  ago." 

391 


RECOLLECTIOlSrS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Thanks  to  my  cousin,  Miss  Louisa  Schuyler,  and  other 
active  philanthropists,  the  laws  in  this  state  were  so 
changed  that  these  cases  were  sent  to  Insane  Asylums  or 
properly  cared  for  elsewhere,  and  to-day  intelligent  efforts 
at  training  and  instruction  have  been  undertaken,  with  the 
result  that  there  is  a  distinct  improvement  in  the  men- 
tality and  usefulness  of  such  public  charges. 

Even  in  the  early  seventies  mechanical  restraint  was 
in  use  in  most  of  the  asylums  in  this  country,  despite  the 
fact  that  it  had  for  a  long  time  been  abolished  in  England, 
and  there  was  a  great  deal  of  drugging.  In  Utica  a  popu- 
lar kind  of  restraint  was  employed  at  the  State  Asylum. 
This  consisted  in  the  use  of  the  Crib^  which  was  a  long 
narrow  box  formed  of  heavy  strips  of  yellow  pine  or  oak, 
with  a  door  at  the  top  of  the  same  kind  which,  after  the 
patient  was  inside,  could  be  closed  and  securely  fastened. 
There  was  at  the  bottom  of  this  a  mattress.  This  gave 
the  person  just  room  to  lie  upon  his  back,  and  to  stretch 
out  his  legs,  but  he  could  not  sit  upright.  While  in  some 
cases  of  exhaustive  insanity  it  was  all  important  to  keep 
the  patient  in  a  supine  position  without  too  much  conflict 
with  attendants,  I  can  see  how  its  routine  use  to  save 
trouble  might  lead  to  gross  injury. 

So,  too,  all  asylums  were  provided  with  straight  jackets, 
and  other  restraining  apparatus ;  I  have  seen  patients  kept 
for  months  in  one  kind  of  unyielding  camisole,  quite  un- 
able to  drive  off  the  hordes  of  bold  flies  and  other  insects 
that  had  settled  upon  them  everywhere. 

The  attendants,  as  might  be  expected,  were  a  rough  lot 
— chiefly  brutal  Irish  or  Germans  appointed  through  po- 
litical influence.  Some  of  these  were  bruisers,  and  assaults 
were  by  no  means  rare.  As  late  as  1901  E.  O.  Dean,  S. 
R.  Davis,  and  C.  L.  Marshall,  all  nurses  in  the  Insane 
Pavilion  at  Bellevue  Hospital,  were  indicted  by  the  Grand 

392 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

Jury  for  cruelty  to  patients,  were  charged  with  manslaugh- 
ter, and  tried  for  having  done  to  death  a  patient  named 
Louis  H.  Hilliard.  A  conviction  was  impossible  chiefly, 
I  believe,  through  the  absence  of  a  witness  who  decamped. 
In  this  trial  the  competency  of  the  testimony  of  insane 
persons  was  made  the  subject  of  dispute,  but  the  Court 
ruled  that  if  a  lunatic  knew  the  nature  of  an  oath,  and 
possessed  intelligence  enough  to  narrate  what  he  saw,  his 
testimony  might  be  taken — a  view  that  was  in  accord  with 
many  English  and  American  decisions.  The  shrewd  innu- 
endoes and  tactics  of  the  lawyer  for  the  defence  helped 
to  make  the  bad  impression  of  the  patients  who  were  wit- 
nesses still  worse,  and  although  it  was  claimed  they  had 
seen  the  man  Hilliard  actually  killed,  the  juiy  did  not 
believe  them,  and  rendered  a  verdict  of  acquittal.  Pos- 
sibly if  the  case  for  the  prosecution  had  been  better  tried, 
the  result  might  have  been  different. 

After  that  time  there  was  an  epidemic  of  cruelty,  and 
Dr.  A.  E.  MacDonald  of  the  Ward's  Island  Asylum 
showed  me  photographs  of  insane  persons  who  had  before 
their  commitment  to  his  institution  been  subjected  to  the 
roughest  treatment,  some  of  them  being  covered  with  cuts, 
bruises  and  fractured  ribs,  and  more  dead  than  alive. 
My  efforts  to  better  things  had  the  endorsement  of  the 
press,  and  in  1900  the  NeW'  York  Evening  Post  said: 
"In  view  of  the  repeated  allegations  of  mismanagement 
and  of  maltreatment  of  patients  at  Bellevue  Hospital, 
which  have  been  printed  from  time  to  time  during  the  last 
ten  years,  we  can  only  agree  with  Dr.  Allan  McLane 
Hamilton  that  the  failure  to  institute  a  searching  inves- 
tigation is  a  cause  for  much  wonder  and  surprise.  Stories 
of  criminally  careless  ambulance  surgeons,  of  needless 
transfers  of  dying  men  and  women,  of  shameful  treat- 
ment of  patients,  and  of  immorality  among  attendants, 

393 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

have  been  all  too  frequent  and  widespread,  and  the  time 
is  now  ripe  for  the  most  searching  investigation  of  the 
hospital  from  top  to  bottom.  Either  sweeping  reforms 
should  be  made  at  once,  or  the  hospital  should  be  cleared 
of  much  undeserved  odium  whjch  now  attaches  to  it.  The 
very  fact  that  its  patients  are  mostly  poor  and  uninfluen- 
tial  should  make  it  the  pride  of  the  city,  and  free  from  the 
slightest  suspicion  of  inefficient  and  untrained  service,  as 
well  as  from  minor  abuses,  such  as  the  overcharging  by 
official  examiners  alleged  by  Dr.  Hamilton." 

As  the  result  of  all  this  agitation  pronounced  reforms 
were  effected,  and  since  Dr.  Menas  Gregory  took  charge 
of  the  Pavilion  it  has  been  conducted  on  scientific  and 
humane  lines. 

One  of  the  most  distressing  things  about  institutions 
for  the  care  of  the  insane  is  the  absence  of  all  mental  occu- 
pation^  nothing  being  provided  to  occupy  the  patient's 
thoughts  and  antagonise  his  delusions.  While  it  is  true 
that  in  the  spring,  summer,  and  fall  a  number  of  patients 
can  be  kept  busy  in  the  fields  and  garden,  and  others  are 
furnished  with  coarse  work,  none  are  taught;  there  is 
nothing  that  will  stimulate  their  mental  operations  or 
divert  them  in  any  way.  In  1880  I  visited  the  Richmond 
District  Asylum  near  Dublin,  which  is  provided  for  the 
insane  of  Leinster,  Louth,  Wicklow  and  Dublin  itself, 
and  was  then  under  the  care  of  the  wise  Dr.  Lalor.  At 
this  place  every  facility  was  given  me  to  inspect  and  study 
the  educational  system  which  had  been  so  successful  that 
almost  three-quarters  of  the  patients  were  discharged 
cured,  or  greatly  improved,  in  a  comparatively  short  time. 
Instead  of  the  pathetic  spectacle  of  hundreds  of  idle  men 
that  I  had  left  at  the  home  asylum  in  New  York  a  month 
before,  hopeless  creatures  sitting  with  folded  arms  and 
downcast  expression,  or  walking  to  and  fro  aimlessly  ges- 

394) 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

ticulating,  I  saw  at  Dr.  Lalor's  place  orderly  classes 
grouped  around  a  patient  teacher  and  taking  an  interested 
part  in  the  simple  lessons  that  were  orally  taught,  and 
demonstrated  as  well  on  the  blackboard. 

There  were  two  classes  of  attendants  at  this  place,  one 
to  teach  and  the  other  provided  for  the  purely  personal 
care.  The  insane  were  all  well  looked  after,  and  in  five 
years  there  had  been  only  two  deaths  from  suicide.  Of 
four  hundred  and  fifty  males  in  the  asylum,  two  hundred 
and  thirty-nine  attended  school. 

They  were  taught  all  manner  of  simple  things,  and  the 
children  in  the  nearby  idiot  asylum  were  instructed  in  a 
way  that  has  in  recent  years  been  most  successfully  util- 
ised by  the  Dotressa  Montessori  in  Rome  and  elsewhere. 

I  was  greatly  interested  in  the  attitude  of  the  patients 
toward  the  teacher,  and  most  of  them  seemed  interested. 
The  latter  was  most  tactful,  never  scolding  or  discourag- 
ing the  stupid  scholar,  but  occasionally,  with  ready  Irish 
wit,  poking  fun  at  some  one  who  gave  a  ludicrous  answer. 
I  was  told  that  at  first  many  patients  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  school,  but  later  hovered  about  the  class, 
and  would  finally  take  a  seat,  becoming  willing  pupils. 
There  were  two  or  three  paranoiacs,  one  of  them  an  edu- 
cated man  who  in  the  fulness  of  his  delusion  of  importance 
sneered  at  the  duller  members  of  the  class,  but  later  be- 
came an  enthusiastic  pupil,  and  later  a  teacher. 

The  benefit  of  all  this  training  was  evident,  for  the 
disordered  ideas  and  actual  delusions  were  skilfully  and 
steadily  antagonised,  less  time  was  left  for  brooding,  and 
many  of  the  patients  when  discharged  had  a  fair  amount 
of  rudimentary  education. 

When  I  returned  to  the  United  States,  I  immediately 
took  steps  to  have  this  system  introduced  in  the  Hudson 

395 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

River  State  Hospital  at  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  where  I 
was  one  of  the  Consulting  Physicians.  It  worked  very 
well  for  a  time,  but  owing  to  the  want  of  interest  taken 
by  the  authorities,  and  the  meanness  in  appropriations 
for  teachers,  books  and  other  things,  no  adequate  support 
being  given,  and  it  was  not  wholly  successful. 

The  commitment  of  the  insane,  and  their  subsequent 
disposal  by  Commissio  de  Lunatico  Inquirendo  did  not 
protect  the  rights  of  the  individual  in  every  case,  and  I 
have  made  a  constant  fight  to  improve  aU  this  with  a  re- 
sult which  I  am  glad  to  say  is  at  least  encouraging. 

Despite  the  popular  idea  that  persons  are  "railroaded" 
to  asylums  for  various  ulterior  purposes,  I  know  of  but 
a  few  such  cases.  One  victim  was  Miss  Georgiana  Wen- 
del,  whom  I  helped;  but  she  had  a  rather  hard  time,  for 
her  eccentricities,  which  led  her  as  a  follower  of  Kneipp 
to  walk  in  the  wet  grass  before  breakfast,  and  do  many 
odd  things,  were  not  approved  by  interested  and  con- 
ventional persons  who  wished  to  shut  her  up.  At  the 
hearing  before  a  sheriff's  jury  they  testified  against  her, 
and  she  was  pronounced  insane  and  a  committee  ap- 
pointed. While  it  must  be  admitted  that  she  was  a  pe- 
culiar woman  and  always  had  been — ^like  the  rest  of  her 
family,  who  were  eccentric — she  was  not  the  demented 
person  pictured  by  the  experts  employed  by  her  brother, 
who  had  kept  her  a  prisoner  under  an  armed  guard  in 
her  country  house. 

An  appeal  carried  to  Justice  Marean  in  Brooklyn  re- 
sulted in  the  reversal  of  the  finding  of  the  New  York  court, 
and  she  afterward  went  to  Germany,  where  she  lived  with 
her  maid  in  a  perfectly  orderly  and  conventional  manner. 
From  there  she  wrote  an  admirable  letter  thanking  me, 
and  ending  as  follows; 

396 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

"Hoping  that  you  may  live  many  years  to  fight  successful 
battles  for  Justice,  Honour  and  Philanthropy ;  and  wishing  you  a 
*Merry  Christmas'  and  a  'Happy  Nbav  Year,'  I  remain, 

"Gratefully  yours, 

"Geokgiana  Wendel." 

Most  people  who  are  committed,  however,  are  really 
better  off  in  institutions.  There  are  many  designing  law- 
yers ever  ready  to  bring  habeas  corpus  proceedings,  and 
in  many  instances  it  is  difficult  to  make  an  ordinary  jury 
acknowledge  the  existence  of  lunacy,  for  the  average  lay- 
man has  his  own  idea  of  what  a  madman  should  do,  and 
all  finer  distinctions  go  for  naught.  Until  the  time  arrives 
when  it  will  not  be  considered  necessary  for  an  insane  per- 
son to  tear  his  hair  or  drivel,  qp  indulge  in  the  violence 
which  is  found  only  in  novels  and  on  the  stage,  we  may 
expect  to  find  juries  more  often  wrong  than  otherwise. 
These  cases  really  ought  to  be  left  to  medical  boards. 

A  case  where  such  a  jury  was  completely  deceived  by 
the  patient  came  under  my  observation  some  time  ago, 
and  the  termination  of  the  affair  is  worth  recording.  A 
certain  man  of  respectable  family  and  in  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances entertained  an  idea  that  he  was  an  apostle, 
and  hired  a  hall  in  the  Bowery  to  which  he  invited  the 
young  men  and  women  from  the  streets,  the  result  being 
that  the  place  was  filled  night  after  night  with  a  turbu- 
lent crowd  of  young  thieves  and  prostitutes.  Robberies 
of  articles  upon  the  clothes  lines  in  the  neighbourhood 
were  committed,  and  the  police  were  called  in.  In  conse- 
quence, the  lessee  of  the  rooms  was  arrested,  brought  into 
court  and  committed  to  an  asylum.  His  religious  views 
were  novel  in  the  extreme,  but  the  jury  before  whom  he 
subsequently  came  in  lunacy  proceedings  for  habeas  cor- 
pus were  not  disposed  to  consider  him  necessarily  insane, 

S97 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

and  he  was  discharged  from  the  custody  of  the  asylum 
where  he  had  been  for  several  months.  He,  however,  of 
his  own  volition  went  back  to  Bloomingdale,  where  he 
stayed,  despite  the  efforts  of  the  Superintendent  to  get 
rid  of  him,  and  his  behaviour  was  clearly  that  of  a  de- 
mented person.  He  threatened  to  sue  the  physicians  who 
committed  him  unless  they  gave  him  the  opportunity  to 
deliver  his  peculiar  address  before  one  or  more  medical 
societies.  I  examined  him  and  found  the  well-marked 
symptoms  of  early  general  paralysis  of  the  insane.  He 
had  delusions  of  power,  and  a  confidence  in  his  own  capa- 
bility as  a  reformer  that  was  marked. 

His  theory  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  was  through 
the  medium  of  a  kiss,  and  he  proposed  to  do  away  with 
the  ordinary  method  of  intercourse  and  substitute  a  plan 
of  his  own,  "which  was  in  every  way  more  pure."  The 
patient  was  liberated  upon  application  of  a  lawyer  who 
was  one  of  the  strongest  agitators  in  the  movement  which 
was  directed  to  open  the  doors  of  lunatic  asylums,  and 
whose  seeming  interest  in  his  client  was  very  great.  He, 
however,  received  a  rude  shock  when  he  presented  his  bill 
to  his  client  for  professional  services  and  the  latter  pro- 
ceeded to  issue  bonds  and  bank  notes  for  its  payment, 
which  he  made  with  a  pen  and  whatever  scraps  of  paper  he 
could  lay  his  hands  upon.  The  cheques  tendered  were 
drawn  upon  "The  Bank  of  Heaven."  This  man  subse- 
quently committed  suicide. 

I  have  often  been  asked  if  there  were  ever  persons  im- 
properly detained  in  asylums  who  were  not  insane.  This, 
I  believe,  is  a  great  rarity,  although  in  certain  private  asy- 
lums there  is  undoubtedly  a  disposition  to  keep  a  rich  old 
man  or  woman  indefinitely  who  would  be  as  well  off  out- 
side of  such  an  institution  in  charge  of  a  competent  nurse, 
and  at  the  same  time  enjoying  the  world.     Many  such 

S98 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

chronic  cases  are  absolutely  harmless,  and  are  simply  put 
out  of  the  way  to  save  bother ;  meanwhile  the  smug  doctor 
derives  a  comfortable  income  from  their  maintenance.  In 
England  the  Lord  Chancellor's  visitor  sees  that  there  are 
no  such  abuses,  but  our  own  local  boards  are  not  so  care- 
ful. It  is  often  better  to  send  a  patient  to  a  well-conducted 
institution  like  Bloomingdale,  the  Butler  Retreat  or  the 
McLean  Hospital  or  others  of  the  kind  than  to  many  a 
smaller  place  I  might  mention. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  expert  testimony  and  its  evils, 
and  no  one  need  look  for  a  more  gross  illustration  than 
the  Thaw  case  which  dragged  its  slow  and  disreputable 
course  over  nine  years.  The  lavish  use  of  money  enabled 
the  defendant  and  his  mother  to  employ  a  perfect  cloud  of 
so-called  experts,  the  testimony  of  some  at  different  times 
being  contradictory  and  worthless.  As  the  first  person 
engaged,  and  one  who  had  the  honour  of  not  testifying  at 
all,  except  under  compulsion  and  without  reward,  I 
watched  with  interest  and  disgust  the  collapse  of  this  kind 
of  testimony  and  its  complete  repudiation  by  justices  and 
juries.  In  the  beginning  no  one  had  much  faith  in  the 
reality  of  Thaw's  mental  disorder,  which  Mr.  William 
Travers  Jerome  called  "Pittsburgh  Insanity";  but  later 
he  and  his  own  medical  men  finally  realised  the  existence 
in  the  defendant  of  a  chronic  mental  degeneration  (this 
opinion  was  borne  out  by  the  defendant's  extraordinary 
letters,  papers  and  will),  and  when  in  the  service  of  the 
state  made  a  persistent  fight  to  return  him  to  Matteawan. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  had  there  not  been  active  political 
and  personal  objections  to  Mr.  Jerome  upon  the  part  of 
Governor  Whitman  and  others,  the  trial  would  have  ended 
differently,  for  he  was  the  only  lawyer  in  the  case  who  had 
fully  mastered  it  and  knew  almost  as  much  about  mental 
disease  as  the  doctors  themselves.    I  have  laboured  for 

399 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

years  to  have  the  courts  and  my  profession  purged  of  this 
abuse,  and  since  1880  have  frequently  written  and  spoken 
at  length,  urging  corrective  reform.  Thanks  to  Justice  A. 
T.  Clearwater  of  Kingston  and  others  of  the  American 
Bar  Association,  a  law  was  passed  last  year  which  enables 
a  trial  judge  to  appoint  the  experts  in  a  murder  case;  but 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  no  relief  has  as  yet  been  afforded 
in  civil  cases,  many  of  which  are  settled  out  of  court  rather 
than  to  have  a  contest  of  alienists.  This  action  of  the  New 
York  Bar  Association  was  preceded  by  a  measure  under- 
taken by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
toward  the  end  of  December,  1892,  when  Dr.  John  B. 
Chapin,  Dr.  Charles  L.  Dana  and  myself  were  appointed 
a  Commission  to  ascertain  the  mental  condition  of  one 
Howard  J.  Schneider,  who  had  on  the  fourth  day  of  the 
preceding  May  been  sentenced  to  death  after  conviction 
for  a  double  homicide,  and  had  appealed  on  the  ground 
of  subsequent  insanity.  We  sat  in  Washington,  exam- 
ined the  defendant,  and  listened  to  sixty-five  witnesses 
who  testified.  We  subsequently  made  a  full  report  to  the 
bench  to  the  effect  that  the  prisoner  was  not  insane,  and 
he  was  afterward  executed.  In  reality  we  were  a  part  of 
the  Court,  and  cross-examined  those  who  went  upon  the 
stand,  including  Schneider's  own  experts.  The  defence 
was  anxious  to  cross-examine  us  upon  our  report,  but 
Chief  Justice  Bingham  and  his  associates  decided  "that  as 
the  Commission  had  been  appointed  as  an  advisory  body, 
to  better  enable  the  court  to  reach  a  fair  and  just  conclu- 
sion, and  as  the  Commission  had  not  been  brought  into 
court  as  witnesses  open  to  cross-examination,  the  Court 
believed  that  it  would  be  an  unheard  of  and  unthought  of 
procedure  to  permit  counsel  for  the  defence  to  cross-exam- 
ine a  Commission." 

During  the  past  decade  we  have  all  made  efforts  (espe- 

400 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

daily  the  members  of  the  New  York  Psychiatrical  So- 
ciety, which  I,  with  Dr.  Pearce  Bailey  and  Dr.  Stedman 
of  Boston,  as  well  as  others,  founded)  to  make  better 
provision  for  the  treatment  of  insanity  in  its  incipient 
stages,  and  to  provide  proper  hospital  care  for  these  in 
great  cities.  While  so  far  there  is  no  special  psychopathic 
hospital  in  New  York,  there  is  in  Boston  a  useful  and  well- 
conducted  institution  of  the  kind,  and  there  is  an  annex 
to  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  known  as  the  Phipps  Chnic 
which  was  endowed  by  relatives  of  Harry  Thaw.  Latter- 
day  measures  for  the  care  of  the  mentally  afflicted  include 
the  adoption  of  the  social  system  methods,  and  visitors 
are  provided  who  not  only  investigate  the  antecedents  of 
the  insane,  but  look  after  their  interests  after  their  dis- 
charge. 

So,  too,  the  energies  of  those  engaged  in  my  line  of  work 
have  been  directed  to  the  matter  of  immigration,  and  the 
introduction  of  unfit  people.  It  seems  extraordinary,  but 
there  is  no  less  than  eighty  per  cent  of  those  who  pass 
through  Ellis  Island,  who  are  mentally  defective  or  ac- 
tually insane.  The  worst  of  these  are  of  necessity  sent  to 
the  large  state  hospitals,  and  a  small  proportion  deported. 

Germany  is  very  rich  in  hospitals  of  the  kind  known  as 
"psychopathic,"  and  there  is  at  Kiel  one  that  is  very  mod- 
ern and  good.  Dr.  Pierce  Clark,  after  a  visit  to  this  and 
other  institutions,  adds  his  plea  to  ours,  and  we  have 
begged  that  provision  should  be  made  for  the  introduction 
of  latter-day  diagnostic  hospitals.  He  recommended  that 
all  American  cities  which  have  a  population  of  20,000 
should  have  psychiatric  wards  attached  to  general  hospi- 
tals. In  cities  of  50,000  there  should  be  pavilions  adja- 
cent to  general  hospitals  with  independent  observation  and 
examination  equipment ;  they  should  also  have  permanent 
resident  nurses   and   one   or  more  resident  physicians. 

401 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

Cities  of  100,000  should  have  their  own  independent  psy- 
chopathic hospitals  on  similar  plans  to  those  at  Halle, 
Giesen,  and  Kiel  in  Germanj^ 

The  trend  of  latter-day  medical  progress  is  in  the  di- 
rection not  only  of  improving  the  condition  of  asylums  for 
the  insane,  but  ordinary  hospitals  as  well.  New  methods 
of  treatment  and  sanitation  are  rapidly  being  adopted,  and 
a  very  strenuous  effort  made  to  place  the  blame  for  bad 
results  where  it  belongs,  and  to  discountenance  conceal- 
ment. One  of  my  devoted  friends  is  Dr.  Amory  Codman, 
of  Boston,  a  distinguished  surgeon  with  a  far-reaching 
international  reputation,  and  a  man  of  progressive  ideas 
and  undaunted  moral  courage.  It  has  been  his  aim  to  ob- 
tain a  record  of  what  are  known  as  "end  results"  in  sur- 
gery and  hospital  treatment ;  for  the  mistakes  of  my  pro- 
fession have  usually  been  concealed,  and  the  blame  for 
failure  has  too  often  been  shunted  upon  the  shoulders  of 
younger  men  or  nurses,  or  ascribed  to  guesswork.  Cod- 
man,  with  all  the  determination  of  his  Puritan  ancestors, 
proceeded  to  publish  the  mistakes  in  diagnosis,  and  errors 
in  operative  procedure,  and  he  began  with  his  own  hos- 
pital and  himself! 

With  a  great  deal  of  pluck  he  attacked  in  a  public  lec- 
ture every  one  whom  he  believed  to  be  remiss,  and  lam- 
pooned the  culpable  with  a  series  of  daring  caricatures. 
Although  at  first  he  was  visited  with  the  scorn  and  wrath 
of  many  of  his  own  personal  friends,  his  views  are  to-day 
generally  adopted  by  the  profession  in  the  United  States 
and  elsewhere,  and  he  has  the  comforting  satisfaction  of 
having  done  a  great  deal  of  good. 

It  is  my  hope  before  the  end  of  my  life  to  see  put  in  op- 
eration a  measure  that  I  feel  must  add  immeasurably  to 
the  advancement  of  civilisation — the  determination  of  the 
fitness  in  an  intellectual  and  physical  way  of  all  who  are 

402 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

to  make  their  way  in  the  world,  and  my  scheme  implies 
a  systematic  and  impartial  weeding  out  of  the  unfit,  and 
the  encouragement  of  the  capable  to  follow  paths  hitherto 
unknown  to  them.  As  matters  stand  there  is  a  happy- 
go-lucky  method  of  starting  young  people  on  careers  for 
which  they  are  unfitted,  and  this  often  ends  only  in  failure. 
This  is  no  new  idea  of  mine,  for  I  announced  it  in  an  inter- 
view over  twenty  years  ago  before  all  the  recent  system  of 
personal  analysis  was  promulgated  by  so  many  people, 
among  them  the  eugenists  and  sociologists.  In  1883  Sir 
Francis  Galton  wrote  his  very  original  book  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  faculty,  in  which  he  detailed  a  mass  of  ex- 
periment and  observation  upon  every  variety  of  human 
fitness,  and  the  influences  of  selection,  race,  family  merit, 
marriage  and  heredity;  and  these  things  to-day  have 
formed  the  basis  of  the  modern  study  of  Eugenics,  and 
have  been  followed  up  in  England  by  the  elaborate  re- 
search work  of  Karl  Pearson  and  others. 

At  the  time  it  occurred  to  me  how  useful  might  be  the 
application  of  these  and  other  studies  in  the  determination 
of  fitness,  and  the  choice  or  regulation  of  the  career  of 
the  young;  and  how  desirable  it  would  be  to  have  the  boy 
or  girl  examined  by  competent  and  impartial  observers, 
well  fitted  for  their  task,  who  would  prevent  the  familiar 
mistake  "of  putting  square  pegs  in  round  holes,"  and  who 
by  judicious  advice  could  prevent  blunders  from  being 
made  in  the  application  of  educational  methods  and  the  se- 
lection of  a  vocation.  This  would  save  many  a  misdirected 
young  man,  who  by  the  indiscreet  choice  by  a  parent,  or 
through  his  own  fancy  or  immature  judgment,  had  started 
upon  a  career  which  could  only  be  a  failure.  I  conceived 
how  a  youth  who  had  none  of  the  mental  endowments 
which  would  enable  him  to  enter  one  of  the  so-called 
learned  professions,  would  succeed  perhaps  in  a  calling 

403 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN  ALIENIST 

which  demanded  the  preponderating  use  of  brawn  rather 
than  brain — and  how  the  ordinary  college  education  would 
be  thrown  away  upon  such  an  one.  The  motives  which 
lead  to  such  a  choice  are  often  sentimental.  The  example 
of  a  successful  father,  a  family  tradition  that  must  be  fol- 
lowed, or  the  allotment  of  professions  to  other  sons,  may 
limit  the  opportunity.  The  folly  of  the  first  is  humor- 
ously pictured  by  the  author  of  Confessio  Medici,  who 
compares  such  a  youth  with  Icarus,  whose  wings  of  wax 
were  melted  in  his  pursuit  of  Dcedalus.  Too  often  are  va- 
rious proposed  occupations  considered  from  the  standpoint 
of  commercial  success  and  nothing  else — but  it  is  not  my 
purpose  to  go  further  into  the  obvious  mistakes  that  occur 
to  us  all.  In  every  age  this  problem  of  a  career  has  been 
discussed,  and  three  hundred  years  ago  Sir  Francis  Bacon 
wrote  his  wise  essay  upon  parents  and  children.  At  the 
time  of  my  early  consideration  of  the  subject  I  conferred 
with  several  competent  specialists,  among  them  the  late 
Dr.  C.  S.  Bull,  and  was  surprised  to  find  how  many  phys- 
ical defects  there  are  which  escape  the  notice  of  the  parent 
or  teacher,  or  even  the  subject  himself:  all  of  these  hamper 
in  some  way  the  best  efforts  of  the  young  person,  and 
may  later  in  life  be  the  one  thing  that  prevents  him  from 
attaining  success  in  his  chosen  calling.  A  colour-blind 
subject  could  not  make  a  painter;  a  boy,  no  matter  how 
perfect  his  technique,  who  had  "no  ear  for  music"  could 
never  become  a  violinist,  and  one  without  a  mathematical 
sense  would  make  only  an  indifferent  engineer  of  any 
kind.  It  was  possible  to  prepare  a  long  list  of  incapaci- 
tating conditions  more  or  less  serious,  both  physical  and 
mental;  and  so  long  as  parents  and  teachers  are  ready  to 
accept  a  standard  of  apparent  but  not  real  fitness,  no  at- 
tention is  paid  to  these  unrecognised  stigmata. 

The  wonderful  strides  that  have  been  made  in  the  fields 

404* 


ABUSES  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 

of  both  psychiatry  and  psychology,  especially  in  the  last 
decade,  have  opened  our  eyes  to  various  disqualifications, 
some  of  which  in  former  times  were  even  looked  upon  as 
evidences  of  "smartness"  or  brightness.  We  know  that 
with  variability  of  mental  make-up,  there  is  an  unevenness 
of  capacity,  and  an  inequality  in  the  development  of  fac- 
ulty: e.  g.,  some  boys  are  prodigies  in  mathematics  and 
dullards  in  everything  else.  We  should  no  longer  hold 
children  to  account,  as  formerly,  for  certain  forms  of  moral 
delinquency  or  dulness,  for  now  we  are  aware  that  these 
are  often  evidences  of  a  psychosis,  and  our  modern  knowl- 
edge of  Dementia  Prcecox  should  make  us  charitable  with 
a  bright  youth  who  suddenly  becomes  hopelessly  incompe- 
tent and  even  perverse.  To  help  and  direct  these,  as  well 
as  the  apparently  strong,  has  been  my  idea  for  years ;  but 
the  pressure  of  my  professional  duties  and  a  serious  ill- 
ness gave  me  no  time  or  opportunity  to  formulate  and  fully 
publish  my  views,  or  to  make  an  appeal  to  those  who  would 
take  up  the  work.  Since  then  my  experience  and  that  of 
others  has  shown  the  vital  importance  of  establishing  some 
well-conducted  institution  whose  aim  should  be  the  regula- 
tion of  education  and  the  direction  of  those  about  to  make 
a  choice  of  a  vocation. 


THE  END 


405 


INDEX 


Abuses  and  achievements,  390. 

Actors,  clever,  191;  old  sterling  New 
York,  124. 

"Adam"  furniture,  220. 

Adventure,  a  perilous,  370;  in  a  Moor- 
ish cafe,  an,  168. 

African  pet,  an,  182. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  37,  51 ;  his  appearance, 
53. 

Alverstone,  Lord,  201. 

Altman,  Benjamin,  as  a  collector, 
214. 

America,  the  yacht,   15. 

"American  Duel,"  an,  286. 

American  immortals,  the,  234. 

"Andy  McLaughlin,"  69. 

Angels,  the  avenging,  87. 

Aphasia  and  will  making,  306. 

Arab  circus,  166;  guides,  160;  school, 
163. 

Astor,  Mr.  John  Jacob,  108. 

Astor,  Mr.  William,  110. 

Astor,  "Willie,"  108. 

Astor,  Mrs.  John  Jacob,  108. 

Assault   upon   Mr.   Morgan,  30. 

Assaults  by  the  insane,  371. 

Assouai,  a  bogus,  166;  in  Tangiers, 
171. 

Asylum,  doctors'  attacks  upon,  373. 

Attendants,   brutal,   392. 


B 


Backus,  Wambold  and  Birch,  132. 
Ballantyne,  sergeant,  delivers  an  ad- 
dress, 239. 


Barker,  Dr.  Fordyce,  106, 

Barnum  and  Bailey's  Circus,  134. 

Barnum's  Museum,  33;  plays  at,  35, 
124. 

Barbieri  case,  335. 

Barter  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
58. 

Battenburg,  Prince  Louis  of,  257. 

Battle-shock  and  other  effects  of  war, 
261. 

Beefsteak  Club,  the,  188. 

Beerbohm,  Max,  225. 

Bishop,  Dr.  Washington  Irving,  375. 

Bishop,  Joseph  BuckUn,  115. 

Biskra,  159. 

Black  Crook,  the,  127. 

Blackwell's  Island,  106. 

Blake,  Dr.  Joseph  A.,  255. 

Blizzard,  the,  of  1888,  134. 

Blue  Grotto,  the,  172. 

"Bob"  Evans,  116. 

Bodley   Head,   the,   197. 

Bonfanti,  Marie,  the  dancer,  127. 

Booth  as  a  negro  minstrel,  130. 

Booth,  John  Wilkes,  345. 

Border  life  on  the  Plains,  89. 

Bouillebaisse,  155. 

"Bounty  Jumping,"  50. 

Brady,  "Diamond"  Jim,  267. 

Brady,  Judge  John  R.,  131,  238, 

Brunton,  Sir  Lauder,  206. 

Brandon,  Thomas,   197. 

Brook  Farm,  18. 

Brougham,  John,  plays  Pocahontas, 
124. 

Brookfield,  "Charlie,"  194;  anecdotes 
about,  196;  as  censor,  195;  his  pecu- 
liarities, 195. 

Brookfield,  "Peter,"  195. 


407 


INDEX 


Brookfield,  the  Rev.  William  Henry, 

195. 
Bryant,  Dan,  the  minstrel,  131. 
Buddha,  an  interesting,  213. 
Buffalo  hunt,  my  brother  describes  a, 

90. 
Burlesques,  early  New  York,  124. 
Burton,  William,  the  comedian,  124. 
Butler,  George,  the  artist,  178. 


Cables,  foreign,  113,  114. 
Calculator,  the  lightning,  34. 
Campbell   the   poet   writes   verses   to 

my  mother,  22. 
Camorra,  the,  182. 
Cannibal  fish,  57. 
Canadian  troops,  254. 
Capital  punishment,  380;  objection  to, 

389. 
Capri,   172;   Coleman,   the   artist,   at, 

173;  extortionate  taxes,  179;  French 

invasion  of,  173;  Germans  in,  176; 

my  house  in,   173;   Pagano's   Hotel 

at,  177;  salt  monopoly  at,  180;  wines 

of,  180. 
Carson  and  Virginia  City,  85. 
Carving,  a  valuable,  214. 
Cases,  strange,  267. 
Cavalry,  Seventh  U.  S.,  89. 
Cecil,  Sir  Edward,  199. 
CeUier,  Alfred,  writes  hurried  libretto, 

133. 
Cerio,  Dr.  Ignacio,  182. 
Charaka  Club,  the,  230. 
Charley's  Aunt,  197. 
Chetwynd,  Sir  George,  189. 
Chief  Justices,  two  great,  201. 
Chilian    convict    settlement    at    Port 

Famine,  59;  Emeute,  the,  116, 
Chinatown,  82. 
Choate,  Joseph  H.,  284. 
Cholera  in  Naples,  epidemic  of,  175, 
Cholera  scares,  102,  105. 
Chowder,  the  origin  of,   156. 
Christianity  in  Japan,  142. 


Christian  Science,  origin  of,  317;  the 
London  conunission  to  investigate, 
321. 

Christy,    George,   131. 

Chrysanth^me,  Madame,  149. 

Churchill,  Winston,  First  Lord  of 
Admiralty,  259. 

Cigar,  my  first,  27. 

City  of  Brussels,  the,  210. 

City  in  the  world,  the  most  southern, 
58. 

Civil  War,  the,  38;  division  of  family 
by,  41. 

"Clegg,  the  Dummy  Chucker,"  325. 

Clergyman,  a  pestered,  270;  the  fam- 
ily, 36. 

"Clothes-Horsley,"  207. 

Clymer,  Dr.  Meredith,  77;  and  the 
confidence  man,  79. 

Cocoa  Tree  Club,  the,  188. 

Code  of  ethics,  the,  63. 

Codman,  Dr.  E.  A.,  402. 

College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons, 
17. 

Coleman,  Charles  Caryl,  173, 

CoUins,  "Lottie,"  105. 

Colorado,  the,  52. 

Commission,  a  new  kind  of,  400. 

Consultant,  the   fashionable,  209. 

Constantine,  167. 

Covent  Garden,  185. 

"Count  Johannes,"  the,  135. 

Courtney,  Sir  W,  L.,  189. 

Courts,  unfairness  of,  293. 

Crawford,  Marion,  at  Sorrento,  182. 

Cremorne  Gardens,  191. 

Crib,    the,    392. 

Crichton-Browne,  Sir  James,  205. 

Criminal,  a  precocious,  271. 

Cruiser  Florida,  the  Confederate,  61. 

Crucible,  The,  98. 

Cruelty  to  animals  in  Italy,  177. 

Curtis,  Dr.  Edward,  31. 

Curtis,  General,  on  miUtia,  90. 

Curtis,  George  M.,  is  challenged  to 
fight  a  duel,  286. 

Curtis,  George  William,  30. 


408 


INDEX 


Curtis,  Prof.  John,  31. 

Custer,  General  George  A.,  26,  89. 

Custom  House,  New  York,  imposition 

on,  223. 
Czolgosz,  Leon,  the  assassin,  360;  trial 

of,  363. 


D 


Dalton,  Dr.  John  C,  68. 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  117;  Charles  L.,  18. 

Danjiro,  the  tragedian,  147. 

Darling,  Mr.  Justice,  203. 

Death  House,  the,  384. 

Death,  a  strange,  275. 

Decisions,  English  and  American,  re- 
garding responsibility,  295. 

Defences   fictitious,  330. 

Del  Valle  Case,  Mr.  Choate  in  the, 
285. 

Dentist,  a  paranoid,  372. 

Denver  in  1870,  88. 

Descent  upon  Water  Street  dens,  103. 

Destruction  of  German  warships,  258. 

Dewey,  Admiral,  visits  Naples,  182. 

De  Windt,  Harry,  the  explorer,  188. 

Dilemma   of   Dr.    S— ,   the,   79. 

Disciplining  a  student,  68. 

Diss  Debarr  case,  the,  274. 

Doctor,  a  dangerous,  377;  of  the  old 
school,  a,  77. 

Doctors,  literary  and  artistic,  229; 
musical,  241;  fees.  111. 

Dom  Pedro  Segundo,  56. 

Donoughmore,  Lord,  188. 

Doremus,  Prof.  Ogden,  110. 

Douglass,  Norman,  escape  of,  176. 

Draft  riots,  the,  48. 

Drama  of  a  doctor's  window,  the,  65. 

Draycott,  Wilfred,  191. 

Drew,  John,  126. 

Drummond,  "Hughie,"  a  practical 
joker,  188. 

Duckworth,  Sir  Dyce,  208. 

Duke  of  Beaufort,  the,  as  master  of 
ceremonies,  187. 

Dutch  occupation  of  Nagasaki,   142, 


E 


Early  burlesques,  124;  Hudson  River 
steamboats,  29;  memories,  27;  opera 
bouflfe  in  Rio,  56;  plans,  31;  strug- 
gles, 96;  trouble  with  Japanese,  141. 

Eccentricity,  299. 

Eddy  household,  the,  313. 

Eddy,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker,  310;  in- 
come, 315;  letter  from,  316;  mys- 
tery about,  312. 

Education  of  Japanese  girls,  153. 

Elbridge  Gerry  and  Josef  Hofmann, 
137. 

Eldridge,  Dr.,  of  Yokohama,  141. 

Electrocution,  an,  381;  a  cruel  death, 
385,  386. 

Electrocution,  Dr.  Francis  Harrison, 
on,  387. 

El-Hammam  Salahin,  hot  springs  of, 
166. 

El-Kantara,  154. 

Emmanuel  movement,  the,  320. 

Emmons  case,  the,  78. 

End-result  system,  the,  402. 

English  artist,  Capri,  wives  of,  179. 

Entrapping  an  "expert,"  281. 

Eppinger,  Louis,  of  Yokohama,  141. 

Evans',  "Bob,"  plan  for  blowing  up 
ChUean  ships,  116. 

Evans'  rooms,  187. 

Execution  at  the  old  Tombs  Prison, 
383. 

Expedition,  the,  Agassiz,  37. 

Experience  with  a  Jewish  patient.  111; 
squatters,  99. 

Extermination  of  buffalo,  the,  89. 

Experts,  true  and  false,  279;  who 
are?  278. 

Experience,  a  reportorial,  113. 

Extortionate  taxes  in  Capri,  179. 


Families,  suicide  in,  375. 
Faculty  of  the  P.  and  S.,  the,  66. 
Father,  my,  16. 


409 


INDEX 


Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  the  old,  28. 

Finch,  Capt.  "Tubby,"  250. 

"Five  Points,"  the,  102. 

Flockton,  Charles  P.,  136. 

Foster-Kennedy,  Dr.,  255. 

Fox,  Dr.  George  Henry,  anecdote  of, 
102. 

Fox,  George  L.,  the  mime,  125. 

Frampton,  Sir  George,  English  sculp- 
tor, 224. 

French  invasion  of  Capri,  173. 

Furniture,  old,  220. 


G 


Gallagher,  James  J.,  367. 
Gallows,   an    ingenious,    388, 
Garden  of  Allah,  the,  159. 
Garfield,   assassination   of    President, 

352. 
Garrick,  David,  186. 
Gaynor,  Mayor,  W.  J.,  attack  upon, 

344,  366. 
Geisha  girl,  the,  151. 
Genee,  Adeline,  128. 
"Gentleman  Joe,"  269. 
German   Cruelty  to  Americans,  243; 

spies,  244,  249,  250. 
Germans      poisoning     streams,     249; 

in  Capri,  176. 
Getting  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  82. 
Ghost   of  Sir  Joshua   Reynolds,  the, 

186. 
Gibbs  the  pirate,  trial  of,  18. 
Gilbert,  Sir  W.  S.,  133,  193. 
Gilchrist,  Connie,  187. 
Gilder  family,  the,  233. 
Gill,  Charles,  K.C.,  203. 
Godkin,   E.   L.,  editor  of  Post,   105, 

115. 
Gorky,  Maxim,  176. 
Grahame,   Kenneth,  198. 
Grossmith,  George,  196. 
Grossmith,  Weedon,  190.  196. 
Guiteau,  Charles  J.,  350;  attack  upon, 

354;    autopsy   upon,  359;   trial    of, 

355. 


Gull,  Sir  William,  treats  the  Prince  of 


Wales,  209. 


H 


Hall,   Marshall,   K.C.,   203. 

Hall,  Oakey,  writes  a  play,  98. 

Hamid,  165. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  16. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  Mrs.,  24,  28; 
her  charities,  29. 

Hamilton,  Allan  McLane,  born,  15; 
meets  Abraham  Lincoln,  38 ; 
studies  medicine,  QQ;  goes  to 
South  America,  51;  meets  Agassiz, 
51;  enters  office  of  Dr.  Sands,  67; 
early  chemical  training,  74;  takes 
an  office,  96;  shoots  a  policeman, 
103;  offered  Health  Commissioner- 
ship,  100;  narrow  escape  in  Tan- 
giers,  170;  leaves  for  Spain,  171; 
elected  to  Royal  Society  of  Edin- 
burgh, 208;  contributes  to  maga- 
zines, 232;  writes  a  book,  235;  first 
and  last  after-dinner  speech,  238; 
goes  to  Germany,  242;  examines 
Mrs.  Eddy,  310 ;  goes  to  prison,  338 ; 
sees  Orange  parade,  104;  offered 
partnership,  106;  resigns  from 
Health  Department,  106;  becomes 
dramatic  critic,  112;  brings  libel 
suit  against  A.  R.  Eno,  121;  wel- 
comed to  Japan  by  doctors,  140; 
meets  Artemus  Ward,  137;  visits 
Algiers,  154;  travels  through  Ka- 
bayle  region,  156;  followed  by  luna- 
tic, 375. 

Hamilton,  Louis  McLane,  25;  in  bat- 
tle of  Fredericksburg,  42;  literary 
precocity,  '26;  draws  for  Vanity 
Fair,  41;  death,  25;  describes  a 
Buffalo  hunt,  90. 

Hamilton,  Philip,  16;  practices  law  in 
San  Francisco,  85. 

Hamlet  burlesqued,  125. 

Hammond,  Dr.  William  A.,  370. 

Harris  case.  Ford,  Carlyle  and,  276. 


410 


INDEX 


Hart,  Tony,  129, 

Hat  measurements  in  murder  cases, 
282. 

Hay,  Claude,  188. 

Hay,  John,  121 ;  letter  to  author  about 
President  Lincoln,  39. 

Health  Department,  New  York,  97. 

Hearn,  Lafcadio,  150. 

Helping  the  unfit,  403. 

Hewitt  will  case,  398. 

Hichens,  Robert,  the  novelist,  159. 

Hillard  cruelty  case,  the,  393. 

Hippodrome,  Franconi's,  28. 

Hofmann,  Josef,  136. 

Holland,  Dr.  J.  G.,  283. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  Dr.,  229. 

Honors,  medical,  in  England,  208. 

Horton  boom,  the,  84. 

Horsley,  Sir  Victor,  207. 

Hospital,  psychopathic,  401. 

Hospital  life,  dreary,  74. 

Hospital  work,  gruesome,  70,  75. 

Hotel  Star,  the,  187. 

Hotel,  the  Tavistock,  185. 

House  in  Capri,  my,  173. 

How  to  trap  savages,  59. 

How  an  insane  patient  paid  his  law- 
yer, 398. 

Howe,  William  F.,  267. 

Hoyt  will  case,  Jesse,  Mr.  Elihu  Root 
in,  308. 

Hudson  River  steamboats,  early,  29. 

Hull,  Commodore  Isaac,  24. 

Hummel,  "Abe,"  329. 

"Hungry  Joe,"  78. 

Hunt  for  the  antique,  213. 

Hunting  in  the  desert,  167. 

Huntington,  Dr.  George,  76. 

Hutchings,  Professor,  lightning  calcu- 
lator, 34. 


Identifying  a  Van  Dyck,  216. 
Impulses  of  the  insane,  378. 
Indian  uprising,  88. 
Informal  party,  an,  109. 


Insane,  129;  commitment  of,  397;  con- 
dition in  early  seventies,  390; 
cruelty  to  the,  392 ;  improper  libera- 
tion of,  378;  in  County  Poor 
Houses,  391 ;  large  asylums  prefer- 
able for,  399;  reform  in  care  of, 
392;  teaching  of  the,  394. 

Insanity  simulator,  328. 

Insanity  cannot  be  successfully 
feigned,  339. 

Inspiration  of  Guiteau,  the,  352. 

Instruments  of  restraint,  392. 

Interviewer,  a  persistent,  118. 

Irving,  Washington,  20;  retires  from 
public  life,  23;  letter  to  my  mother, 
23. 

Italian  cookery,  181. 

Italian  customs,  imposition,  180. 

Ischia,  earthquake  at,  174. 

Ivison,  Will,  301. 


Jackson,  Andrew,  describes  fire  at  the 
Hermitage,  23. 

Jacobi,  Dr.  Abraham,  15. 

Janeway,  Dr.  E.  G.,  97. 

Japan,  cremation  in,  148;  travels 
through,  140,  143. 

Japanese  attitude  toward  the  United 
States,  143;  early  trouble  with, 
141;  fatalism,  145;  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's advice  to  the,  152;  modesty, 
143;  servants  in  the  United  States, 
145. 

Jerome,  Thomas,  the  American  Con- 
sul in  Capri,  174. 

Jerome,  William  Travers,  273,  297, 
399. 

"Jesuit  Peril,"  142. 

Johnston,  General  Joseph  E.,  41. 

Jones,  Captain  Owen,  and  his  whales, 
210. 

Judges  and  jurymen  who  became  in- 
sane, 286. 

Judges,  experts,  and  juries,  278. 


411, 


INDEX 


Kaneko  Kantaro,  the  Baron,  153. 
Kellar,  Harry,  274. 
Kelly  and  Leon,  132. 
Kemble,  Harry,  194. 
Kemble,  Fanny,  her  birthplace,  187. 
Kitchener,  Lord,  198. 
Krackowizer,  Dr.  Ernest,  15. 
Kwannon,  a  floral  feast,  148. 
Kyoto  and  Nara,  150. 


Labouchfere,  Henry,  marries  Henrietta 
Hodson,  124. 

Lake  Tahoe,  85. 

Lane,  John,  197. 

Larbfe,  160. 

Laurie,  R.  P.,  Prof,  217. 

Le  Gallienne,  Richard,  198. 

Lethal  chamber,  the,  385. 

Lewis,  Sir  George,  204. 

"Lewis   Jarvis,"   272. 

Lewis,  James,  126. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  38;  assassination 
of,  345;  review  by,  40. 

Life  is  attempted,  my,  100. 

Lizards  of  Capri,  blue,  178. 

Lombroso,  Cesare,  331. 

London  in  war  time,  242;  my  moth- 
er's life  in,  20;  my  life  in,  184; 
night  clubs  in,  190;  picture  experts 
in,  217;  streets  of,  212. 

"Lost   Bacillus,"  the,  200. 

Lucullian  medical  feasts,  75. 

Lunatic,  a  boxed,  391. 


M 


MacDonald,  Dr.  A.  E.,  as  an  after- 
dinner  speaker,  240. 
Madison,  "Dolly,"  28. 
Maginn,  Captain  John,  16. 
"Malicious  Animal  Magnetism,"  314. 
"Man  of  Two  Tombs,"  the,  155. 


Markham,  Sir  Clements,  letter  to  au- 
thor concerning  Mr.  Roosevelt's  ex- 
ploration, 57. 

Marquis  of  Queensbury,  the,  188. 

Marriage  of  Boss  Tweed's  daughter, 
98. 

Marsh,  Luther  B.,  274. 

Massacre  of  negroes,  49. 

McCabe,  Alderman,  338. 

McCullough,  John,  129,  348. 

McKinley,  William,  assassination  of, 
360. 

McLane,  J.  W.,  Dr.,  humor  of,  70. 

McLane,  Louis,  minister  to  England, 
19. 

McLane,  Rebecca,  20. 

McLane,  Robert,  ambassador  to 
France,   98. 

McLean,  Kaid,  is  made  a  prisoner  by 
Rasuli,  170. 

Medical  education,  63. 

Medical  jurisprudence,  needed  re- 
forms in,  293. 

Medical  student  and  coroner's  in- 
quests, 104. 

Medical  and  Surgical  Society,  the,  75. 

Memories,  early,  27. 

Mencken,  Adah  Isaacs,  as  Mazeppa, 
86. 

Meredith,  Clymer,  Dr.,  77. 

Metcalf,  John  T.,  Dr.,  69. 

Methods  of  English  courts,  288. 

Midnight  adventure,  a,  174. 

Millet,  Frank,  lost  on  the  Titanic,  173. 

Minstrels,  the  San  Francisco,  132. 

Minstrelsy,  negro,  evolution  of,  130. 

Mitchell,  Edward  P.,  editor  of  New 
York  Sun,  117. 

Mitchell,  Dr.  S.  "Weir,  158,  229. 

Molineux,  Roland  B.,  276,  384. 

Monkey  Gorge,  the,  155. 

Moorish  cemetery,  155. 

Moore,  Tom,  20,  21;  sings  his  own 
songs,  21. 

Mordaunt  divorce  case,  the,  203. 

Morgan,  Pierpont,  30;  pursued  by  a 
lunatic,  30. 


412 


INDEX 


Mormon  propaganda,  88. 

Mother,  my,  20;  meets  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  20;  receives  a  snuff- 
box from  Commodore  Hull,  24. 

Mudge,  Hank,  85. 

Mulreany,  "Happy  Jim,"  329. 

Munthe,  Dr.  Axel,  175. 

Murder  in  the  desert,  161. 

Murders,  political,  342;  in  Europe, 
notable,  342. 

Museum,  Barnum's,  33. 


N 


Nast,  Thomas,  98. 

Neapolitan  cruelty,   183. 

Negroes,  massacre  of,  49. 

Nevis,  29. 

New  Club,  the,  187. 

Newspaper  work,  112. 

Newton,  Gilbert  Stewart,  20. 

"Nob  HiU,"  81. 

Nomads,  the,  164. 

Normania,  the  passengers  on  the,  105. 

Novel   reading,   a  curious   result   of, 

268. 
Nurses,  376. 


O'Brien,  Fitz  James,  122. 
Office,  a  country  doctor's,  66. 
Ojigoku  the  "big  Hell,"  152. 
"Old  Clark,"  68. 

Old  Californians  in  San  Diego,  84. 
Old  doctors'  offices,  64. 

Old  Dr.  P has  bad  luck,  76. 

Old  furniture  makers  in  London,  221. 
Old  masters  as  colorists,  218. 
Old  New  York  doctors,  64. 
Old  New  York  lawyers,  285. 
Old  New  York  society,  110. 
Opera  bouffe,  early,  in  Rio,  56. 
Operation,  a  musical,  67. 
Orange  riots,  the,  104. 


"Order  of  the  Starred  Cross,"  374. 

Ordronaux,  Dr.  John,  297. 

Origin  and  family,  15. 

Osaka,  fetes  at,  151. 

Osier,  Sir  William,  208,  231. 

Ouled  Nails,  street  of,  161. 


Pagano's  Hotel  at  Capri,  177. 

Palace  of  ex-Sultan  Sidi  Ali,  157. 

"Pantomime  Rehearsal,"  the,  196. 

Parish  will  case,  308. 

Parker,  Willard,  Dr.,  67. 

Parnell  case,  the,  201. 

Patriotism,  English,  262. 

Patriot  ships,  the  British,  261. 

Patron,  an  ignorant  art,  227. 

Perdicaris  is  abducted,  169. 

Pergolesi  decoration,  220. 

Philip  Hamilton,  16. 

Pictures,  bogus,  224. 

Piffard,  Henry  G.,  Dr.,  107. 

Pikes  Peak,  88. 

Pilgrimage,  a  marine,  210. 

Pinafore,  133;  Richard  Mansfield  as 
Sir  Joseph  Porter  in,  133;  George 
Edgar  in,  134;  epidemic  of,  134. 

Pirates  of  Penzance,  the,  193. 

Plans,  early,  31. 

Plat  de  Negre,  a,  78. 

Plays  at  Barnum's  Museum,  35. 

Plot,  the  Canadian,  345. 

Political  murders,  342. 

Post-mortem,  a  gruesome,  276. 

Post,  the  New  York  Evening,  115. 

Potter,  Bishop,  62, 

Potter,  Frank  Huntington,  53. 

Post-office,  a  primitive,  61. 

Prince  of  Wales,  the  visit  of  the,  28. 

Prince  Francis  of  Teck,  189. 

Prison  at  Tangiers,  the,  170. 

Psychopathic  hospitals,  401;  rulers, 
237. 

Public  School  No.  40. 

Pulitzer,  Joseph,  117. 


413 


INDEX 


Pulitzer,    Albert,    the    original    inter- 
viewer, 118. 
Punishment  for  murder  in  Italy,  389. 
Punishment,  capital,  390. 
Punta  Arenas,  or  Sandy  Point,  58. 


Q 


Quackery,  modern,  63. 

Queen    Victoria,    anecdote    of,    194; 

assault   upon,  343. 
Quimby,  Phineas  Parkhurst,  317. 


E 


Railroads,  trans-continental,  52. 

Ravel  family,  the,  130. 

Red-headed  Capresi,  177. 

Reform  in  the  care  of  the  insane,  392. 

Reporters,  importunities  of,  118. 

Responsibility  of  criminals,  295,  296. 

"Resort  of  the  British  Aristocracy," 
the,  191. 

Rigl  sisters,  the,  127. 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  harbor  of,  55. 

Riots,  the  Draft,  48. 

Rise  of  a  prominent  family,  the,  109. 

River  Duvida,  Mr.  Roosevelt's  dis- 
covery of,  57. 

Robin  case,  the,  273,  333. 

Robson,  Stuart,  in  Black-Eyed  Susan, 
126. 

Rogers,  Samuel,  the  "Banker  Poet," 
22. 

Rooms,  the  Argyll,  191. 

Rothschild's  horses.  Lord,  250. 

Russell,  Lillian,  is  persecuted,  373. 

Russell,  Sir  Charles,  201. 


Salt  Lake  City,  87. 
Salt  monopoly  at  Capri,  180. 
San  Francisco  in  1849,  81;  gambling 
in,  83;  society  in,  81. 


Sarcophagus  of  Learning,  a,  76. 

Scanlon,  William  J.,  Irish  actor,  129. 

Schneider  case,  the,  400. 

Schooldays,  16. 

School  system  among  the  insane,  394. 

Schurz,  Carl,  15,  115. 

Schuyler,  George  L.,  18. 

Scorpions,  the  black,  165. 

Scott,  Clement,  and  the  public  baths, 

144. 
Scott-Siddons,  Mrs.,  136. 
Sea  of  buifalo,  a,  89. 
Sent  to  an  asylum  in  a  box,  391. 
Sidi  Okba,  162. 

Sierra  Nevadas,  a  ride  over  the,  86. 
Simulation  and  imposture,  325. 
Shaw,  Bernard,  ridicules  the  doctors, 

207. 
Sherifa  of  Tangiers,  the,  171. 
Sherman,     Tecumseh,     General,     41; 

meetings   with    General   Joseph    E. 

Johnston,  41. 
Sherwood,  Mrs.  John,  110. 
"ShiUo,"  145. 

Shoguns,  Daimios,  and  Samurai,  141. 
Shrady,  Dr.   George  L.,  operates   on 

General  Grant,  114. 
Sierras,  over  the,  85, 
Sims,  Dr.  Marion,  96. 
Slaves,  runaway,  in  our  cellar,  19. 
Slocum,  Capt.,  59. 
Smallpox  in  1873,  100. 
Snake  charming,  157. 
Snake  laboratory,  a,  158. 
Society,  early  New  York,  108. 
Society  journals,  evil  of,  120. 
Society   of   the   Beefsteaks,   Sublime, 

188. 
Society,  the  star  of  early  New  York, 

112,  113. 
Sothern,    Edward    A.,    anecdote    of, 

129. 
Southern  Cross,  the,  54. 
Spadero,  the   model,   178. 
Stage  manager,  an  indefatigable,  192. 
Standard   Oil   Company,  pursued  by 

the,  270. 


414 


INDEX 


statements,  ridiculous,  of  simulators, 

337. 
St.  John's  Park,  108. 
Steamboat  Duck,  60. 
Steamboats,  early  Hudson  River,  29. 
Stephanie  case,  333. 
St.  Maur,  Harry,  136. 
Story,  a  terrapin,  76. 
Stradivarius,    an    expensive,    241. 
Straits  of  Magellan,  the,  51;  entrance 

to,  58;  scenery  in  the,  60. 
Struggles,  early,  96. 
Studying  medicine,  62. 
Suicidal   families,  375. 
Sullivan,  Sir  Arthur,  193. 
Sun,  The  New  York,  117. 
Suor  Serafina  di  Dio,  181. 


Tammany  Hall,  98. 

Tangiers,  169. 

Ta-ra-ra  Boom-de-ay,  106. 

Tartarin  of  Tarascon,  154. 

Tea  at  the  "Bodley  Head,"  after- 
noon, 197. 

Teck,  Prince  Francis  of,  189. 

Terra  del  Fuego  natives,  59. 

Terranova  case,  the,  1.20. 

Thackeray  describes  Covent  Garden, 
185. 

Thaw  case,  the,  399. 

Theatricals,  New  York,  123. 

Thomas,  Gaillard,  Dr.,  70. 

Thompson,  Lydia,  128. 

Tiberius,  Palace  of,   172. 

Travers,  William  M.,  129. 

Treasure  Trove,  213. 

Tree,  Sir  Herbert  Beerbohm,  192. 

Tree  as  Hamlet,  192. 

Trevelyan,  Sir  George  Otto,  236. 

Trip  to  South  America,  37. 

Trouble,  early,  with  the  Japanese, 
141. 

Truck  case,  the,  336. 

Trumbull,  Don  Ricardo,  115. 


Tunis,  156. 
Tweed,  "Boss,"  98. 


u 

Uncertainty  of  testators,  298. 
Underground  slave  route,  18. 
U.  S.  S.  Suwa/nee,  the,  61. 


Vacation  abroad,  139. 
Van  Amringe,  Dean,  236. 
Vanderbilt,  Commodore,  will  of,  300. 
Vanderpoel,      Dr.      Samuel      Oakley, 

Health  Officer  of  Port,  97. 
Vanity  Fair,  41,  122,  137. 
Vauxhall  Gardens,  191. 
Verdict,  a  Somerset,  289. 
Vigilantes,  the,  80. 
ViUa  Narcissus,  the,  173. 
Virtues  of  a  mascot,  the,  262. 
Vocation,  the  choice  of,  405. 
von  Bode,  Prof.  Wilhelm,  219. 


w 

War,  the  Civil,  38. 

War,    European,    outbreak    of,    245; 

stringency    of    money    in    London, 

243. 
War  preparations  in  Germany,  242. 
Ward,  "Artemus,"  122,  137. 
Ward,  Leslie,  193,  225;   anecdote  of, 

226, 
Warm  springs  at  Myanoshita,  152. 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  234. 
Washington  Irving  writes  to  Brevoort, 

20. 
Watterson,  Henry,  117,  237, 
Watson's  verses,  198. 
Webb,  General  James  Watson,  56. 
Wellesley,  Lady,  20. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  20. 


415 


INDEX 


Wendell  case,  the,  396. 

West,  the  old  Far,  80. 

Wheeler,  A.'  C.    {Nym  Crinkle),  113. 

Whims  of  elderly  people,  299. 

White,  Chief  Justice  Edward  Doug- 
lass, 201. 

White's  Club,  189. 

White,  Richard  Grant,  writes  son- 
nets to  Pauline  Markham,  128. 

White,  Stanford,  223. 

Whittaker,  Cadet,  327. 

Who  are  experts?  278. 

Wichita,  battle  of,  25. 

Wife,  an  anxious,  267. 

Wilde,  Oscar,  scandal,  197. 

Wild  trip  to  Montreal,  a,  108. 

Will,  a  curious,  304;  making  and 
breaking  a,  298. 

Williams,  Montagu,  202. 

William  IV.,  anecdote  of,  21. 

Williamsburgh,  16. 


Willing  property  to  stray  dogs  and 

cats,  302. 
Wines  of  Capri,  180. 
Winter,  William,  129. 
Witnesses,  queer  answers  of,  284. 
Witthaus,    Dr.    R.    A.,    distinguished 

chemist,  276. 
World,  the  New  York,  120. 
Worm  turns,  a,  283. 
Wright,  Sir  Almaroth,  208. 
Wyndham,  Sir  Charles,  191. 


Yacht  America,  the,  17. 
Yamato  Damashi,  the,  144. 
Young,  Brigham,  87. 


z 

Zeppelin  attacks,  260. 


416 


^    Ca- 


DATE  DUE 

JAN    '  9 

1995 

UNIVERSITY  PRODUCTS,  INC.    #859-5503 

.■^:^ 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031  021  53393  0 


